


Sparks

by NoNameWriter



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Minecraft, M/M, Minecraft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-27
Updated: 2017-04-14
Packaged: 2018-04-06 13:01:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 39,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4222659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoNameWriter/pseuds/NoNameWriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All his life, there'd only ever been one main rule: don't speak to the Humans. Don't let them see under the green hoods or hear anything beyond the gentle hissing of their kind. Despite never being that great of a Spark, despite his people casting him long glances and silent disapproval, despite being alone in this world after Dan was taken from him, Gavin never meant to break that rule. </p><p>And then two Humans, one in a bear pelt and one in black armor with roses over his breast, heard what was supposed to have been his dying wish. Only, they didn't just let him die. </p><p>And now, he had to live with this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In a Hole, of All Places

Gavin inhaled sharply a little as he landed on his feet wrong and fell backwards, his back making sharp contact with the black ground beneath him and knocking the wind from his chest.

He coughed as oxygen flooded back into his lungs, and them immediately sighed, giving up completely from his vain attempts at freedom. He simply stared up into the night sky tiredly, listening to the sound of the wind and crickets—praying he wouldn’t hear the rattle of bones or the clicking of spider fangs coming closer. The hole he was in now would… probably be his grave, considering he was going to starve here eventually or an unfriendly mob member was going to show up and get him like shooting a fish in a barrel.

He hadn’t been doing anything, he swore he hadn’t! He was just wandering, as he did in the forests these days. Sure, he’d wandered a lot farther than the place he’d started out in, but he hadn’t realized the danger in these woods. There were rumors amongst the other Sparks he came across that these lands belonged to a group they called the Hunters—Humans who tortured the mob for sport. He’d seen some really strange buildings or monuments or whatever they were, and some friendly Dragon People had explained that there were these loud humans who came and built these ridiculous things, used them for a couple days and then never returned unless they were just running through on some other mission.

He’d enjoyed wandering around and seeing the odd creations, wondering what they were used for and thinking up ridiculous explanations for them.

He had met a group of fellow Sparks a little north of here who’d explained that the Hunters didn’t often come out during the night, but they were never sure because occasionally they did. Apparently they would just run through the forests, and if they came across a mob member, they would kill it for fun. They’d steal a spider’s string, drag an Undead out into the sun just to watch it burn (and although they were empty things with little feeling or emotion, that was still just plain cruel), grind Bone People into dust to put on their crops, and murder Dragon People just to take their flying pearls. Most frighteningly to someone like himself, was apparently their penchant for either forcing Sparks to blow up, or even worse, simply slaughtering them to collect the fine dust an unused light left behind.

This entire land seemed terrifying, simply because of the five humans who lived here. It seemed they had their hands on every inch of the hundreds of square miles around, and Gavin kept checking over his shoulder to see that he was still alone at all times.

Apparently his luck had run out though, because he had just been thinking about going south for the coming cold months or pushing farther east and out of these strange Hunter lands when he felt something wrap around his neck and all but rip him off his feet. He’d choked and struggled to breath as he grasped as whatever it was around his throat, and turned in a panic to try and fight the source-

-to see a Human, dressed dark green and black armor grinning at him from underneath a yellow visor, and his heart had stopped. The Human had a fishing pole in his hand, and he pulled at it roughly, forcing Gavin to stumble towards him.

It was a Hunter, it had to be, and he panicked. He tried hissing threateningly, but the Human just backed away, rolling out his line so he was out of the blast distance and yanked again. Gavin found himself stumbling one more step forward, hissing fiercer. The Human just repeated his motion, and the young Spark got closer.

They went pretty far like that, Gavin’s panic rising with every step. He had no idea what the Human was going to do to him, but the rumors he’d been hearing hadn’t led him to believe it’d be anything good. And, while the Human didn’t know it, he couldn’t actually fight back, even if he desperately wanted to.

Which he very much did right then.

Unlike other Sparks… he didn’t have a light, or at least a properly working one. He couldn’t explode, at least not at will, and he'd never had the ability.

 Most Sparks found their light as children, long before they left the pure darkness of their Tomes. Each clan of Sparks had their own Tome, deep under the earth to protect from any other creature finding it, and it consisted of a cage-like center where Sparks who exploded ended up. Going boom didn’t mean death, it meant being extremely uncomfortable, even in pain if the explosion was bad enough, and then they’d reappear in the Tome, so long as the center remained protected and safe.

Going from infant to child meant a big boom, and it was the signal the parents needed to find their child their coverings. Once they had their proper coverings, they could go outside, up to the surface world to see light for the first time.

Gavin had never been one of those children. He was only half Spark, and the other half, was Human. His mother had deviated with an evidently insane Human male, which caused quite the stir in their clan to begin with, but then upon finding herself with child had been all but labeled as an outcast, which meant her child had felt a lot of that status. It didn’t help that his Human aspects set him very obviously apart from everyone else around him.

The first being that he had apparently cried as a babe, though he was too young to remember that. Sparks were quiet, reserved beings that lived in darkness and near silence apart from the occasionally hissing to convey important information while in their Tome, and not even their newborns made much sound beside a sharp hissing that lasted a few weeks before dying down into the quiet. But no, Gavin had cried like a Human infant, and very few of his clan had ever let him forget it.

And then, most humiliatingly, he never found his light- although his mother eventually realized after all the other Sparks his age were topside that he wasn’t going to go boom to signal that he was ready to grow up. After finding his coverings and heading up to the surface world with her, mother and son got their first real look at each other— and immediately knew things just weren’t right with the deviant child.

All they could see underneath the large hoods and over the scarves wrapped around the lower portion of their faces, was their eyes and a little skin around it, but even that little spoke volumes about their differences. Gavin knew his mother’s eyes to be wide and pitch black, taking up most of her whites—she didn’t blink often but stared pensively, the little skin he ever saw around her gaze being pale as snow. She’d told him all Sparks were pale under their coverings, from having lived in darkness and then avoiding sunlight at all costs, since many of them would burn to ash instantly at so much as one beam of the golden light like the rest of the mob—it was only the coverings that let them walk around during the day.

The reflection of his own hooded face in the rivers and lakes he passed told him his eyes were green like the coverings he wore, with small black dots in the middle and lots of white around the edges when he looked surprised. Human eyes, his mother had told him. His skin was also dark, not quite tree bark but sort of like the wet sand on the river banks. Like his father, his mother had explained.

Even bundled up like any other Spark out there, what little could be seen was too different to accept.

He’d grown up trying his hardest to blend in, despite it all. He discovered he _could_ blow up, but his light only emerged if he were fatally wounded. He discovered that fact after falling off a cliff and breaking nearly his entire body, before a white light had consumed him painfully and placed him back in the Tome, in a deep sleep for a week after it. Then again when a Bone Archer sunk up on him and put an arrow through his heart, though he'd only slept for two days after that incident.

He hadn’t particularly wanted to fatally injure himself to escape the Hunter who’d hooked his neck with a fishing rod, especially because his Tome was gone—destroyed by angry villagers. If he blew now, there would be no coming back.

Like the rest of his clan.

So he let himself stumble forward, trying desparately to get the fishing line off from around his neck, but every time he slipped free it’d be right back on seconds later. It got hopeless, until it got scary as he heard other voices through the trees.

“Geoff’s got one!” A loud voice yelled.

“Damn it, time’s almost up!” Another one, a bit deeper complained.

“Suckers! This makes ten for me,” The Human holding Gavin hostage boasted loudly with another sharp tug that nearly sent him sprawling to the ground. They got closer to the other Humans, and Gavin felt his stomach drop at the craters in the ground around the clearing they entered. How many Sparks had blown up here!? At least a dozen, but…

And then he saw the pits. They were obsidian, even in the fading light of the day there was no mistaking it, and he almost cried out in fright. However, Sparks did not speak to Humans—they did not use their voice, they did not show their face, they did not interact with them in any way. It was one of the Sparks’ most important rules, which was why his clan had hated his mother—and therefore him—so much.

But it was never so hard to remain only hissing as the Human in the strange armor dragged him forward, towards a specific hole in the ground that Gavin _knew_ he wasn’t going to get out of. This was it, he was going to be in that hole forever.

And he wasn’t strong enough to pull away, when with one last mighty tug his footing slipped and he went careening into a pitch black pit. Obsidian was _hard_ , arguably harder than stone, and he hissed violently when he landed on his shoulder. He scrambled to his feet and hovered defensively, trying to figure out if there was a threat down here or not.

But it was just a hole. A dark, impenetrable hole with high walls that he knew he wasn’t going to be climbing out of, not with the smooth obsidian making it impossible to get any sort of grip on.

And then the smell hit him—the smell of sulfur and iron, unmistakenably Spark blood. He looked closely at the wall nearest him, and nearly lost his meager lunch when he saw stripes of the dark purple ash that told him a Spark had gone boom here. What had the Human said?

“ _That makes ten for me!”_

Which means _nine_ Sparks had been forced in here and exploded rather than letting themselves be at the mercy of these Hunters.

He was shaking in fear by the time the voices above him got closer. He heard them listing numbers proudly, and his wanted to puke. That was nearly the entire clan he’d met last week and another on top of it. What had they done, just wandered around catching Sparks with _string!?_ How many had blown before they even got to these stupid holes!? Were they really that heartless?

“Hey, this one hasn’t gone.” A voice from directly above him nearly caused him to jump, and he spun, pressing his back against one of the walls to face another Human with dark skin, darker than his even, in what looked to be black armor with roses painted on it. He didn’t look as frightening as the Human in the dark green armor, who’d grinned the entire rough trip here behind a yellow mask evilly.

Nor did he look as purely _terrifying_ as the Human who came to stand beside the rose man, who wore a bear pelt over his head, gripping a diamond sword in his hand. He looked short, and angry, and strong—and he sounded it too when his voice ground out in answer. “Wonder what its deal is.” He shrugged uncaringly.

Gavin was breathing funny, terrified of the sword and sort of humiliated with the way they were just staring at him like one would stare at a bird in a cage. His fear kicked into his more Spark-like side, which would’ve made a normal Spark blow right then and there. The most he ever did though was get the trademark red eyes and vision, his skin lighting up and making his coverings flash warningly.

The Humans took a step back in alarm, thinking he was going to blow. Another Human—a massive, hulking Human at that— stepped up into Gavin’s line of sight and grabbed the two seemingly younger men by the shoulders. “What are you two doing!? Back up if it’s going to blow!” He scolded, a big beard obscuring his disapproving frown.

“Actually, I don’t think it is.” The rose man mused, and the young Spark realized that despite the flashing continuing, he was well past the time he should have gone. Meaning he wasn’t.

“Ha! It’s broken!” The bear man burst out loudly, giving a big amused laugh, and Gavin felt his entire being collapse.

Broken…? He was, wasn’t he?

The flashing stopped.

“Come on you three, get your asses in gear! It’ll be night soon and I wanna get home.” A voice called the three looking down at the curious Spark below them. Gavin recognized the voice as being the Human who’d caught him, probably the leader judging by the way they interacted.

As one, the three Humans turned and forgot the creature they’d caught, and they walked away after their fellows, leaving Gavin in a hole.

For probably forever.

He’d tried jumping, climbing, punching, and digging his way out, but no amount of patience was going to make physics bend for him, or let him wear his way through obsidian. He’d probably starve before he could wear a hold big enough for his foot to slip into as a step in the impossibly strong stone anyway. He’d even tried to injure himself to trigger a lighting that would make this end quick, but besides making himself incredibly sore and bruised, he didn’t have it in him to self-harm enough to get there.

Not that he hadn’t tried—for four days he tried everything he could think of over and over again. The only reason he lasted that long was because he was not one of those Sparks that evaporated in sunlight even through their coverings, and there happened to be a tree hanging over one corner of his hole which gave some blissful shade in the raging heat of midday. It also rained for a short time one night, which he risked taking his hood off to catch a couple mouthfuls of water so he didn’t dehydrate first thing. But now he was tired—he was hungry and thirsty and exhausted from staying up each night waiting to hear the sound of an unfriendly mob coming through the night to end his suffering.

By the fifth day he had completely given up and just sat in his shaded corner with his head on his knees, trying to breathe deeply as his stomach finally stopped twisting in painful hunger, going numb, and his thoughts slowed from lack of water and sleep. Not to mention the couple hours he’d tried banging his head against these walls to kill himself a couple days ago—his headache from that had never really gone away.

He thought of how he ended up here—of the Hunters and of the reasons he’d left his own lands years ago.

He’d always had more wanderlust than other Sparks, always being more curious and interested in other things besides himself. There was a village near his Tome, who hated him as much as his own clan did—except for a Human boy he’d met when he was just a child, not yet ten winters into his life. His name had been Dan, and he’d been the friend he’d always wanted.

He knew he was a disappointment to his clan already, so the guilt he felt for breaking the rules and speaking with him was minimal. Dan taught him proper Human language (since apparently Sparks had a different version when they bothered to speak beyond their hissing) and played with him, talked with him, _liked him._ No one had ever liked him before, besides his mother, and she was so quiet she never said much beyond an occasional hiss like the rest of his people.

He had loved Dan. And miraculously, Dan loved him, even when his entire village realized who he was hanging out with and tried to convince him out of it. The village—Brita, Gavin thought it was called— _hated_ the “Creeper Boy” who hung around their most favorite young member, but they loved Dan too much to really hate him for befriending the wild creature they thought Gavin was. In a way it only made them love him more, since Dan was the kind of rare soul who could befriend what the rest of the world saw as a monster.

And then, when they were much older, the Undead Pigmen came and started attacking Human villages without provocation, including Brita. Dan had such a good heart, of course he went out with the older men of his village to fight off the threat and protect the innocents of his land the second he was of age and able enough to fight… but he didn’t come back.

Unable to believe that the unspeakable had happened to his only friend, Gavin stupidly wandered into Brita alone, just to see for himself the monument they made for their fallen hero. The moment they spotted him it was over—they blamed him for everything, for _tainting_ their young hero, for being who he was, for belonging to the mob. The same mob which held those who had killed Gavin’s own personal hero, along with their beloved youngest warrior.

He ran, and even more stupidly he ran back to his Tome for shelter. The villagers of Brita tracked him and destroyed his clan’s center, slaughtering most of his family in the initial surprise attack, and causing most of the rest to blow in order to take the Humans out with them. Including his mother, who blew with the last three angry villagers left so that he could escape.

And he’d run—away from Brita, away from those lands, away from Dan and his memory and everything else.

That was years ago though, and he’d spent a long time on his own, just surviving and seeing the world. He never thought it’d end like this though—in a hole of all places. Though, in some part of his brain he’d always assumed it’d be a Human responsible for killing him, over one of the mob. Humans were just… crueler.

He fell asleep the morning of the sixth day, and really had no illusions about waking up again. The night before that had been quiet, the sky clear and showing every star up there in perfect clarity. He didn’t think he’d get a better sight to die to, and let his eyes sink close in the hour before dawn.  


	2. Just Let Me Die

“What the hell?”

Gavin blinked slowly, disoriented. He was in the same position, in the same hole, but he wasn’t dead.

Unfortunately.

“Woah, Ray, it’s still here!”

He groaned a little, trying to think through the haze in his brain. He vaguely realized there was a voice talking above him—well, shouting really. Very loudly, in a tone that ripped right though his brain in a searing stab.

“What? Why hasn’t it gone yet!?” Another voice joined in. Gavin was too tired to lift his head to check, but if memory served him right he thought it sounded like the bear man and the rose man again. He didn’t feel like dealing with this—they were just going to leave him again. Why couldn’t they just leave him to die in peace?

“It’s broken, remember?”

“Oh right. Damn, that’s unfortunate. Has it been here all week?”

“Probably.”

“…damn.”

“Yeah.”

A pause.

“I’m gonna kill it.”

Gavin’s heart jumped along with the rose man’s voice.

“What?! Why would you do that!?”

“Just look at it man! That’s just pathetic—if it can’t blow up then it’s pretty harmless and I can at least get it over with now, right? Instead of letting it rot?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“I’m going in; you’ll pull me up?”

“Yeah, sure. Think I have some spider string here to help…”

“Great.”

Gavin was too tired to jump when a pair of heavy iron boots thudded into his hole on the other side, directly in front of him. They weren’t going to let him die in peace, but at the very least they were going to speed it up. There was that, if nothing else.

He sighed, closing his eyes against the light of the day.

But they snapped open again when he felt something sharp jab him in the shoulder. Ok, was the bear man _poking_ him!?

His irritation flared and he lifted his head to glare at the Human now standing over him, and was more than a little satisfied when the sword wheeling man jumped back a step, pointing his blade at the young Spark’s head in defensive alarm. He once was terrified of his Human, but he was too tired now to be afraid. He was over this—over _life_ really at this point and just gave up with all propriety.

“Just kill me already.” He rasped out, his voice rough from not only his ordeal, but also from simply not having used it in years and years.

But instead of triggering action, the diamond sword clattered to the ground.

There was a sound of something being strangled, and Gavin managed to look up to see the black-armored rose man looking absolutely horrified. The bear man too, looked pale as a sheet beneath a bunch of red curls poking out from his bear pelt. The curls were slightly endearing, which made no sense on the terrifying warrior-like Human.

“Did…d-did it just talk?” The rose man stuttered out.

Gavin sighed, too weak to care as he let his head fall back against his knees. Had his entire body not been numb, he would’ve jumped when he was ripped back up by the bear man shaking his shoulders, kneeling in front of him.

“Oh my god, can you talk!?” He all but yelled. Forget that, he _was_ yelling, and it was _really_ loud. The volume and the rough rocking sensation sent the young Spark into a blurry daze of hunger-induced pain and delirium and he groaned dizzily.

“ _Why?”_ He moaned in pain. “Just kill me or leave me,” He half begged, half sighed as he clenched his eyes shut to avoid seeing the spinning face of the pale Human in front of him.

“What!? No! We didn’t realize—we thought Creepers just— _you can talk?”_

Gavin didn’t bother answering, his sighed quietly.

“ _Can all Creepers talk?”_ The man demanded in a shout, shaking him again.

The Spark snorted once. Like he was going to give his people’s secrets away. He may be throwing everything he was raised to think and do to the wind by talking at all to these men in the first place, but he _really_ just wanted to die right now. Everything else was not his secret to spill.

Sensing he’d hit a brick wall, the bear man changed tactics. “Why didn’t you just blow up like all the others!?” He demanded to know.

Gavin felt his first tremor of emotion in days, like a cold sliver of ice slipping between the walls of his heart.

“I’m broken.” He repeated softly, opening his eyes to meet the deep brown gaze of the man in front of him. Eyes that were suddenly mortified to hear his own words repeated in such a way.

“My name’s Michael.” He said, at a loss of what else to do. “Do you have a name?”

“Everyone has a name, Micool.” Gavin responded slightly coolly, butchering his name on purpose in slight resentment. But then he sighed, his flicker of emotion going out without the energy to sustain it. “Mine’s Gavin.” He offered apathetically, closing his eyes again.

“Hello Gavin.” Michael greet uncertainly. His eyes lit up as he reached into a bag by his side, pulling out a loaf of bread and putting it in the Spark’s limp hand. Gavin’s eyes snapped open and stared at the gift, before shuddering and shoving it back to him. “No, please, we didn’t… you _have_ to be hungry.” The Human half pleaded.

Gavin just shook his head and tried to pull away from the man, though his attempts were pathetically weak.

“Please… no more. Just let me die.” He whimpered, leaning away until Michael dropped him suddenly. He slumped against the wall again, closing his eyes and just trying to find that blessed sleep again, his head pounding mercilessly.

There was a pause so long he almost thought the Humans had finally learned compassion and left him alone, until he felt hands on him again. He groaned in complaint, but was unable to resist—or even care— when he felt himself being lifted up off the hard rock he’d been sitting on for endless hours. Every bone in his body was stiff as hell, and his muscles gave out without putting up any fight at all.

“Ray,” He heard Michael order, and there was a rustling sound Gavin didn’t look up to see the source of. One of his arms was draped over the bear man’s broad shoulders and one of the Human’s iron hands gripped around his waist to keep him up despite no help from the Spark himself. They shifted, and Gavin’s head lolled back in the motions weakly, and he suddenly realized the rose man—Ray, Michael had called him—had the bear man’s free hand grasped in his, and together they pulled the two in the hole back up to the surface world.

Gavin felt no immediate relief at this fact, since he fully expected to kick it any minute now, with or without these Humans’ apparent change of heart in abandoning him.

“Michael, we can’t-”

“I know, but Geoff can get over it. This is our fucking fault.” Michael’s growl was pretty close to that of a wolf’s, Gavin thought aimlessly, listening numbly as he was shifted until the bear man was cradling his limp form in his arms, his head leaning against his fur-covered shoulder uselessly. His eyes closed again almost unwillingly, finding the position a lot more comfortable that the one he’d been stuck in down in his obsidian prison and too tired to do anything else. However sleep did not claim him just yet, it only rendered him a wilted almost-corpse as the two Humans began to walk, a mostly-dead Spark in their possession.

The two did not say much in their journey, but the silence was heavy, like there was something they had to discuss but weren’t brave enough to do so just yet. Gavin found the silence nice, since he’d grown up in a place of dark and quiet, and for a moment with his eyes closed and his mind blurred in starvation, he could almost believe he was back in his Tome, his mother sitting across from him in the silent darkness in her presence of wordless comfort.

After what felt like hours of being rocked gently by the bear man’s swaying walk, the rose man broke the still afternoon.

“Should we bring him to Ryan’s?”

“Hell no! We’ve done enough without handing him over to be another experiment.” Michael shot back, his voice rumbling in his chest against Gavin’s ear.

“But Ryan has all the medicine and healing potions.”

“Then he can come to us. Maybe my house.”

“You only have one bed, and if you don’t sleep in the next day or so you’re going to be useless if we have another mob attack. Geoff’s got an extra bed—hell, he’s got five to spare.”

“If Geoff’s off building when we get back, he’s gonna be fucking _pissed_ to return and find a Creeper in his house. I don’t want him attacking first and asking questions later.”

“I think you’re confusing Geoff with _you_ , dude.” Ray chuckled gently in his deep voice. “Yeah he’ll be pissed, but he won’t do anything until he has answers.”

“…do we _have_ answers to give him?”

Ray fell silent then, and Gavin wondered about them. It wasn’t like he inherently hated Humans like the rest of his people; in fact, he was actually quite curious about them. Probably because he was half one of them, and yet he’d never really gotten that close to them besides with Dan. And Dan and he had been just kids together, neither of them had known a lot about how Human life worked as adults.

Despite his curiosity, the wariness his people had instilled in him combined with how those of Brita had treated him left him interested and slightly afraid. He’d stopped looking after a while… but now he wasn’t afraid. He had nothing left to fear, with death so close, and it only left his curiosity about the strange Humans who’d left him to die, and yet were now trying to help him for some reason.

Eventually, the two Humans breathed out sharply as one, and a voice started shouting from what seemed like a distance away, yet still managed to sound pretty damn loud and upset.

“The FUCK do you two think you’re doing!?” It screeched.

“Jack please-!” Ray tried to calm him, shouting back.

“Oh! Can I put it in a hole!?”

“NO RYAN!” Both Michael and Ray bellowed back, and Gavin felt himself sigh in relief at that. Please, no more holes…

“Are you two fucking _insane?_ Michael _put it down right now!”_   The voice that belonged to the man they’d called Jack got closer, sounding very worried and concerned.

“He won’t blow, Jack. He’s hurt.” Ray tried to explain soothingly.

Jack didn’t seem very soothed. “It’s a god damned _Creeper_ you morons, what do you mean it won’t blow!? And what do you mean its _hurt?!_ It’s a **Creeper!** ”

“It’s the Creeper Geoff caught at the end of Creeper fishing last week—we were passing by on our hunt and it was still in there! We were gonna put it out of its misery but…” Ray trailed off, seeming uncertain.

“Well I’ll do it if you two can’t.”

“NO RYAN,” the two hollered again, and Gavin found himself fascinated and terrified of this Ryan guy.

“You _can_ however heal him if you want.” Michael said cautiously, and there was a brief pause in with all the Humans seemed to hold their breath.

“… I can do that too.” Ryan agreed as if coming to a decision, not noticing the way Michael and Ray sighed in relief and Jack huffed angrily.

“Fine you three, but you’re going to have to explain this insanity to Geoff when he gets back.”

“We can do that!” Ray settled eagerly.

Jack grumbled under his breath. “But I’m at least going to go build another obsidian hole for when this blows up in your face—literally.” He grunted.

Gavin stiffened in terror.

Oh god- please no- ohgodohgodohgodohgod-!

He whimpered weakly into Michael’s shoulder, and the arms around him turned to stone in surprise.

“Woah—never heard one do that before.” Ryan’s interested tone broke the suddenly oppressive silence that’d fallen.

“W-wait a second, wh-what the-!?”

“Do you see why we can’t just kill him?” Michael’s cold tone shot out at the now spluttering Jack. Silence answered him.

But then:

“Actually, no.”

“Shut up Ryan.”

 


	3. Nice to Meet You, Creeper

The place they took him to was darker than outside, and colder, so it must’ve been inside a cave of some sort. That’s all Gavin could figure out although he didn’t have the energy to open his eyes and confirm it.

“So, six days without food or water… he’s doing pretty well, considering.” Ryan’s not-concerned tone announced to the rest of them. Gavin hadn’t heard the others leave, and he was sure they were hovering somewhere else a bit a ways in the cave since he could barely hear their murmured whispers.

Ryan’s hands felt large and warm, strong but surprisingly gentle as he looked over his new patient. Despite his seeming lack of conscious in killing him not twenty minutes ago, he respected his new charge when he’d tried to take the young Spark’s hood off and Gavin had whimpered quietly again. He was receptive enough to realize he didn’t want it off, and for some reason just worked around it instead of ignoring the near-helpless creature in front of him.

He was even nice enough to help him drink something that tasted like sweet grass and something spicy without taking his scarf off properly, and almost immediately after the mixture had hit his throat, Gavin felt surges of energy return to him slowly, his stomach unwinding itself from the knot it’d tied itself in. He still felt weak as hell and his entire body ached something awful, but he didn’t feel like death was two breaths away anymore.

More strange smelling things were sprinkled over him, waves of heat racing over his covered skin as the odd Human above him chanted words he didn’t understand. After a time of those strange sensations, Ryan’s voice addressed the other Humans across the echoing cave.

“People can go quite some time without food, but water is an entirely different matter; even considering that, he’s not dead, which is really impressive. On top of that it doesn’t look like he’s slept at all in the time he was down there, which is probably smart cause there are other mobs out in the forests in that area.” Ryan continued as several sets of footsteps moved across a stone floor and closer to him and his patient. “Plus, he’s battered pretty badly. I think he tried to kill himself and ultimately failed.” He explained, not sounding at all concerned with the gruesome fact. He actually sounded fascinated.

The other three men were obviously more affected though, because the silence that followed those words was enough to rival a Spark Tome on a day after a final lighting of one of their own.

“He’ll be ok though?” the rose man’s voice said in a subdued way.

Ryan seemed to think for a minute. “It’ll take most of my healing potions and some time, but yeah I think so. He won’t be getting up for some days, and his muscle mass is severely depleted so moving will be a bit hard for a couple of weeks after that. Not to mention he’s got some serious bruises to get over, but yeah, eventually he’ll recover.”

Three breaths released as one.

“Wait… how do you know what the muscle mass of a Creeper is normally?” Jack said cautiously.

“I have my ways.” Ryan cackled happily, and Gavin would’ve frowned suspiciously if that didn’t sound so exhausting.

The three others didn’t comment, but moved on. “When do you think he’ll wake up?” Michael’s voice asked slowly.

“Well he’s not entirely asleep right now to begin with,” Ryan explained, and Gavin sensed him moving closer as he spoke. “He’s more in a state of shock than anything, from his body being put through so much. Like a mini-coma, but he’s still sort of aware of his surroundings a little. I guess I could give him a sleeping potion to catch up on some rest, and then I’d say he’ll be under for about a day or so, maybe a little more.”

Sleep sounded… really nice. Gavin was up for this plan.

Thankfully Ray agreed. “Well then do it already! Poor guy’s probably exhausted!”

“Ok, ok, keep your flowers on.” Ryan grumbled, moving around Gavin and picking something up off the table beside him. The young Spark felt something like snow being sprinkled over him, and blackness enveloped everything.

000

When Gavin came to again, it was to the sound of a small hiss. Not a hiss of one of his people, but a more inanimate hiss, combined with a little clink like metal hitting glass. He opened his eyes, and although it was dark it wasn’t the dark of a Tome, just a cave. Looking up though, he was struck by how… _tall_ this cave was. And very smooth—the walls seemed to be square and towering and…

His attention was grabbed by a cough that sounded alarmingly close, and he bolted upright and hissed in alarm.

“Woah!” A man’s voice exclaimed in a rolling tone, and Gavin felt his heart skip a beat when he recognized it. His head was clearer, it hurt less, and he wasn’t as tired as he’d been before, meaning his emotions were back in full force and it sort of just _hit him_ that he’d let himself be taken into what appeared to be the Hunters’ home base. Which, in hindsight, seemed like a _terrible_ idea.

Especially when confronted with the man who’d dragged him into the stupid hole he’d spent the last week in was staring back at him with wide eyes, a bottle half-way raised as if he’d been about to take a sip when the Spark in the bed had jerked into a sitting position. He was slightly less terrifying when he wasn’t grinning behind a yellow mask. Without his armor he seemed like a normal Human with odd facial hair and strange pictures painted up his exposed arms.

But still. It was _him._

Panic struck and he tried to scramble away, but his body vetoed that idea by giving out as soon as he tried to use his arms to pull himself up, not even his fear giving him enough adrenaline to get over his weakened state. He would’ve tumbled off the bed had the Human not grabbed him and pushed him down, one hand over his chest to pin him from moving any more.

Despite being so afraid, he didn’t start to light, which really proved how weak his body was right then. The most he could do was hiss his distress—which he did, interspersed with a low whimper of his real voice as his emotions raced away from him.

“ _Dude—_ I’m not gonna hurt you! Calm the fuck down,” The man almost yelled in his face, and the Spark fell silent, frozen in shock from the address. He hissed lowly, questioningly. The man might’ve smiled back, but the most it showed was his mustache twitching slightly. His brown eyes seemed… less maniacal than they were last time Gavin had been faced with them too, so… there was that.

From the angle they were at, the man could see under his hood as he held him down, and when his face flickered in something like surprise, Gavin realized it. He squeezed his eyes shut again, unwilling to show this man who’d tossed him into a hole something only his mother and one true friend had ever seen.

“I know you can talk, quit with the hissing shit.” The man scolded, but Gavin refused to budge. He remained still and silent, praying he might go away. The Human didn’t give up though and tisked under his breath. “Listen dude, lemme lay it out for you. My name’s Geoff, I run this place and all of Achievement City and boss the Hunters around from time to time. What I say goes, and I say you get to stay and chill here for a bit while you recover, and _I say_ that no one’s gonna hurt you while you do, got it?”

Gavin slowly opened his eyes, giving the man above him a curiously incredulous look. Geoff smirked triumphantly.

“If anyone goes against my word, I’ll kick their ass into next week, and they all know it. You’re safe, promise.” He swore with a more honest smile. Gavin just hissed disbelievingly. Sure, he was safe from everyone else, but what about this apparent boss man?

Geoff rolled his eyes and gave the Spark’s chest two not-so-gentle pats with the hand that still pinned the young man to the bed, causing Gavin to exhale sharply. “What did I say about the hissing shit?” He demanded pointedly. 

Gavin sat there for a minute and weighed his options.

On one hand, it’d been ingrained in him all his life that he wasn’t supposed to talk to Humans, and now that he’d _really_ broken that rule in talking to Michael and Ray, he wasn’t inclined to do it again now that his head was back on straight. On the other hand… if he’s already broken that rule, what was the harm in just committing to it all the way?

Plus… every Spark he’d met in the past seven years had only waited a day or two before politely hinting he should probably move on, so it wasn’t like he had any friends amongst his own people to be responsible to. His entire clan, his family, was long dead and he was miles and miles and miles away from anyone who’d ever known him growing up. These Hunters seemed to have an entire chunk of this world to themselves and didn’t interact with many other people for them to tell… and they _were_ helping him heal, even if they were the ones who’d hurt him in the first place and this healing process also sort of felt like he was still their prisoner.

But the biggest hesitation he had… was that he _was_ part Human. It wasn’t like he ever had a Human who _wanted_ to talk to him before besides Dan, who still had his own village to think about most days… and this opportunity seemed too interesting to pass up. Besides, Geoff didn’t seem like the type of guy anyone said _no_ too, and if he played nice then maybe Gavin would get to stay under his protection a little longer.

He got hung up on his childhood beliefs for a second longer before tossing it to the wind.

“Sorry,” He murmured quietly, uncertainly.

Geoff’s eyes went wide, almost like he hadn’t actually believed the mob member he’d caught to actually be able to speak.

“Damn dude… we hadn’t realized Creepers were, like, sentient and shit.” He blurted out, and Gavin furrowed his brow at the man still curiously peeking into his hood. It felt like an invasion of privacy, but he figured it was a Human thing—after all, no Human he’d met had covered their face unless they were going off to fight something. They probably didn’t see the sacredness of it.

The Hunter’s words bothered him immensely though, on top of his intrusive attitude. “Sentient or not… living creatures you torture for fun?” He countered quietly, and finally Geoff stood back up, no longer holding him down. It didn’t stop him from standing over the bed though, giving the young Spark a curious look as he took a sip from the bottle still in his other hand.

“Look at it from our perspective. You guys are monsters, or so we thought.” He argued. “We didn’t see anything wrong with thinning the population.” He shrugged.

Gavin grit his teeth harshly. “What is a monster?”

“Something that kills without reason. Something that destroys and harms innocents.” Geoff responded without missing a beat.

Beneath his scarf, Gavin smirked. “Then look at it from _our_ perspective—it is you and your Hunters who are the monsters in these lands.” Geoff flickering eyes turned to stone in a second, and Gavin met his gaze defiantly.

“Touché,” He finally responded, a lot more casually than Gavin had been expecting him to. He took another swig from his bottle. “But here’s where we’re going to deviate from that definition of monstrosity—we’re going to learn. No more killing mob for fun, huh? ‘Cause apparently they’re full of sass.” He leaned down and pointedly made a face at the young Spark in front of him before sitting down and kicking back in the chair he’d been occupying before his charge woke.

“So,” he continued in an easy, casual tone that Gavin watched carefully from where he lay. “Michael said you had a name. I told you mine…” He left it in the air, and Gavin gave in with a stroke of reluctant acceptance at what was happening.

“Gavin.” He answered.

“Nice to meet you, Gavin. How come we never knew Creepers could talk before?”

His mouth twisted beneath his covering. “It’s against the rules.”

“What rules? Creeper rules?” Geoff exclaimed in interest. Gavin just mutely nodded, and the man leaned farther back to think on that. “So… you’re breaking the rules by talking to me.” Again Gavin was mute, but this time he just stared from under his hood until the Human got the message. “Right, well… I won’t tell if you won’t.” He shrugged, draining his bottle, and Gavin watched him in surprise. That was awfully… nice.

“Uh… thank you.” He muttered.

“Welcome. And while we’re on the topic of Creeper things, I was wondering why you haven’t just gone boom yet. Michael seemed pretty sure you wouldn’t, but he wouldn’t say why.” He pressed.

Gavin closed his eyes for a second, and then sighed.

“I can’t.” He admitted. “I was born without a light. I just can’t.” He turned to stare at the ceiling rather than the man… or, rather, the darkness that the walls led up into, seeing as the ceiling was apparently too high up to see. This was some cave.

“Interesting.” Geoff mused. “Are a lot of Creepers born that way?”

“No… just me.” He said weakly.

To his surprise, Geoff just let out an amused chuckle. Upon seeing his charge’s head turn sharply to look at him through the shadows of his hood, he interpreted the motions correctly and expanded. “Well, your loss is our gain. Had you just exploded, we’d never know Creepers were actually intelligent and wouldn’t have had a reason to change our ways, now would we? You’ve probably saved a lot of lives by being defective.” He said bluntly, and despite the sharp pains it sent through his chest, Gavin found himself oddly comforted by that logic.

After a pause:

“Sparks.” He said, and Geoff raised an eyebrow at him.

“’Scuse me?”

“We’re called Sparks. Not Creepers.” He clarified.

“ _Really_?” Geoff’s voice arched in an incredulously interested way. “What about Endermen?”

“Dark Ones.”

“Zombies?”

“Undead.”

“Skeletons?”

“Bone People.”

“Ghast?”

“Clouda.”

“Blaze?”

“Fire Walkers.”

“Zombie Pig Men?” Gavin shuddered audibly on instinct. Geoff’s face went from fascinated to suspicious immediately. “Not a fan?”

The Spark shook his head and grimaced. “No.” He breathed, Dan’s face flashing in his mind’s eye sorrowfully. “Even mob fear them. We just call them the creatures from the other side.”

Geoff hummed lightly. “What about… Withers?”

“There are only ten of them, and they each have names. I’m not sure if I ever heard the mob refer to their species separately.”

“Wow. The things you learn in a day.” He mused, thinking carefully. “So what are the names?”

Gavin had to think a minute to get them all straight. “Well, there’s La, Ra, Duin, Dian, Miso, Maso, Kri, Krota, San, and Nim. I think. Or… there might be another one, but… no, that’s all of them. I think. Maybe… no. Yes. No wait-”

Geoff chuckled. “Did you just confuse yourself?”

“What? No!” He exclaimed, his face getting hot under his coverings. He put his hands up and pushed the thin fabric up some more, the ties keeping it up having loosened slightly from all that had happened recently.

“Why have I never seen a Cr- sorry, a _Spark’s_ face before?” Geoff cut his back-pedaling off, leaning forward in his chair more and placing his empty bottle by his feet. Gavin felt unnerved when he leaned close enough to see under his hood again, but instead of cowering away he forced himself to stay still. Geoff smirked, “I see someone in there, someone who looks very human to me. And yet you look like any other C- _Spark_ I’ve ever come across before from a distance. Truthfully I’ve never been this close to a Spark before to have had the opportunity to even notice you guys were just dressed strangely, I’m usually booking it in the other direction to avoid the blast, just as I assume everyone else does too. Why do you guys bundle up?”

Gavin shrugged half-heartedly, sending waves of aching pains through his shoulder from the small movement and the state of his muscles. “It’s just… what we do.” He said weakly. “Why do Humans have stupid facial hair?” He shot back, and the man squawked indignantly.

“ _Not_ stupid— _super_ manly.” He defended himself proudly with a sly grin, and then focused back in. “So do you see other Cre- _Sparks_ without all the layers? Do you guys look Human under all that?”

That was a good point, Gavin wondered vaguely. He knew _he_ certainly looked very Human just because he could feel his own body even in the darkness he lived in when he had to take them off, but he’d never seen another one of his kind without the coverings to know if it wasn’t just him and his Human side that made him like that.

“Gavin?” Geoff pulled him out of his thoughts, and he shrugged again.

“Sparks… are born in darkness. We live in it. We’re only allowed up to the surface world after we already have our coverings. I… don’t even know what _I_ look like, much less what anyone else looks like without them.” He admitted carefully, watching the man’s face slacken in shock as he tried to take that in.

“Not even your parents? Or a partner or something?” He tossed out there incredulously.

Gavin shook his head. “If we needed to take the coverings off, we’d return to the darkness of our Tome. No one knows what each other looks like.” He admitted.

“Huh.” He sat back, flabbergasted it seemed. “No wonder you didn’t let Ryan take your hood off to treat you.”

Gavin felt his heart leap at the mention of that strange man. “You’re not going to let him put me in a hole, are you?” He squeaked, and then jumped slightly when the man burst out laughing.

“Ha! Aw man, don’t worry about that. Ryan’s one sick motherfucker, but he knows to leave you alone. Although if he starts calling you Edgar, tell someone and/or run the opposite direction.” He cackled up a storm, and Gavin just sat there wondering about this Human’s sanity. Well, all their sanities really.

“Can… can I ask _you_ a question?” He ventured hesitantly, and the painted man blinked and shrugged.

“Sure, why not. I’ve asked you like twenty at this point. What’s on your mind?”

Gavin chewed at his lip. “Are… are _all_ Humans like this? You seem… strangely ok despite everything, and Ryan’s terrifying and Michael and Ray left me in a hole but then they carried me here and-!?” He cut himself off, overwhelmed with everything.

Geoff tilted his head back as he thought. “Well… us five aren’t really normal, by any means. We’re all crazy in one way or another… which was probably why we clustered together out here in god fucking _nowhere_ rather than endanger humanity back where we each came from.” He shifted in his seat, a contemplative look on his face.

“You know… Ryan used to be a king. He was king of a kingdom way north, in a place he said that was always covered in snow. He went insane though and figured he was better off with his experiments so he just left his kingdom with this damn cow that follows him everywhere. He’s crazy smart, like mad genius kind of smart, and he’s great at making everything work around here but _damn_ is he a bag of cats.” He snorted to himself. “He’s harmless though, if you tred lightly around him.

Ray I found on a mountain south of here while on a hunting trip, just sitting on a rock and enjoying the day with like a hundred roses around him in piles. I asked if he lived around there and he said he didn’t, and then he followed me all the way back here and just stayed without ever saying a word as to _why_ the hell he decided that _my_ plot of land was where he wanted to live too. I tried to kick him out once and he just laughed at me, but he follows orders well enough aside from that so I learned not to care.

“Michael was a bit stranger—he was from a kingdom that neighbored my own. He was a knight for a rival king, and he had this reputation of never losing a fight. He was a fucking _insane_ warrior—still is really. But back then, every year they’d have this big tournament between our kingdoms and like three others where all the knights would fight, and he won every single time, ever since he was old enough to compete. Then one year, he goes off the deep end and kills like, over two hundred knights, including all the ones from his old kingdom, and then just stands up in front of a thousand people and runs his own king through with his sword.”

Gavin squeaked, and Geoff nodded to him in agreement with the wordless sentiment.

“A year or so after that, Jack and I take off from Austina, where we grew up, and set out to try and find some place of our own. I never really did anything useful there anyway, and Jack was the architect for our king, but got treated like shit for it. We got fed up and headed out and eventually ended up here, and not long after that Michael just popped out of nowhere and wanted to move in too, since he’d been on the run from like five kingdoms for months at that point. ‘Course I knew who he was, I watched him commit mass murder and high treason without giving a single fuck, but he was willing to settle down and listen to my rules so I said fuck it and let him stay. He’s really saved our asses since then though, when we get herds passing through here breaking down our doors. He can take on anything without breaking a sweat, I swear to god, but he’s a softie when you get to know him.”

Gavin released a breath he hadn’t known he was holding. “Did you ever find out why he killed so many people?”

“Yeah, I did.” Geoff smirked, clearly pleased with himself and his decision to let the warrior stay. “Michael’s a good kid, and he’s got a good heart, but he has a temper like you wouldn’t _believe._ Right before he was set to fight, he got wind that his king was planning an assassination on another king in attendance at the tournament. The bastard was gonna blame some other innocent knight for it, who just so happened to be Michael’s friend and like, just barely old enough to hold a sword much less successfully assassinate someone. He flipped his shit and killed everyone whose name was involved in the plot, including his own king. Michael’s loyal, but not as much as he is protective of those he cares about. He obviously cared more about his friend than his king, and that was that.”

“Wow,” Gavin breathed in surprised admiration of the warrior man.

“Damn straight.” Geoff chuckled, stretching slightly. When he dropped his arms, the man gave the Spark in front of him a measuring look for a couple seconds before speaking again. “Gavin, how old are you?”

Only slightly surprised, he answered. “Um, roughly twenty two winters just about, I think.” Sparks weren’t that good at measuring years spent in their Tome before they surfaced, since there was no light to mark the days or months, so it really was just an estimate.

“You’re Ray and Michael’s age. Right in between them, actually.” He mused, and Gavin wondered just what he was thinking about and why the hell he’d wanted that information. “Well, now that you know a little more about us, are you going to try and bolt when I turn my back?”

Gavin blinked.

“… no.” He slowly agreed. “If… if I’m still allowed to stay, I’d… like to stay.” He said weakly, and Geoff just nodded to him with a knowing smile.

“Good. ‘Cause I have work to get to today.” He announced, standing and clapping the bed-bound Spark on the leg as he passed. “Get some rest kid.” He offered before he was gone, walking off into the darkness of the cave.

Gavin stared after him for a minute before relaxing when he realized there was no one else around.

What had just happened?

And, more importantly, what the hell had he just gotten himself into?

 

 

 

 

 

 


	4. Explosive Hellos

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to render1674 for drawing the most adorable version of Spark!Gavin ever! Love it, and am flattered to death!
> 
> All the props ever!
> 
> imgur.com/xK59MI5

Surprisingly, Gavin found himself quickly at ease around these Hunters, although he was unsure as to how that happened. It just turned out that one day, when he saw Ray peeking his head through the door to say hi, and he didn’t call him the ‘rose man’ in his head, but his proper name. He stopped staring cautiously when Ryan came in to give him another healing potion, and he stopped trying to disappear in his bed when the hulking figure of Jack appeared in the doorway, obscuring the light behind him with his hugely intimidating physique.

 He learned that this giant cave he was in was apparently a Human dwelling, like a house, although Geoff explained it was far from normal because _he_ was far from normal. The massive structure belonged to the Hunters’ leader, and after every day of going out to “work” he would come back and sit by the young Spark’s beside and they’d talk, answering each others’ questions as it quickly became apparent that neither of them would ever run out of things they wanted to know about each other.  

Almost immediately Gavin found himself being the verbal punching bag for the painted man, but the guy laughed so strangely and freely no matter the joke that he couldn’t fault the Hunter for it, and eventually even found himself enjoying it in some twisted way. It also helped that Geoff’s blunt playfulness didn’t falter no matter the grim subject or touchy topic, so even their darker conversations had an upbeat air to them. Talking with him was easy, and the Human seemed to get a kick out of it, the same as Gavin found himself entranced when listening to the older man recite tales or explain his rules.

The most interesting thing they’d talked about was when Geoff had explained that his ‘work’ consisted of those giant structures out in the woods, which he built all by himself and then the rest of the Hunters would join him out there and they’d play games on them. Gavin was fascinated, never having realized those once-imposing things would’ve been used for something so innocent. It was odder still to imagine someone like Michael—stern, ferocious Michael—joining in on the ridiculous games Geoff described and having a good time while doing it, but Geoff swore he did.

“It’s part of the rules here. Everyone does what I say, and I fucking say I wanna play games.” He’d shrugged and taken another swig of his ever-present bottle. “What else would we do out here in the middle of nowhere?”

The middle of nowhere, which was apparently affectionately named Roostivia, with the Hunters’ homes—Achievement City— at its center. It was technically a “kingdom” – with decent lands but the smallest population _ever­_ with five Hunters and only three villages scattered about the area who hailed Geoff as their king—because they needed the sovereignty of a separate nation so that other kingdoms wouldn’t try to come in an arrest Michael for his past crimes. Ryan too, had implied a lot over the years, although he’d been very vague as to why he didn’t want anyone in his past kingdom to know he was here, and just nodded gravely when asked if it was a good thing Roostivia had its own sovereignty to keep other kingdoms out. And Ray had been suspiciously eager to agree to the idea before the words were even out of Geoff’s mouth when he first brought up the idea, though he refused to answer any questions on the topic.

At the end of that brief history lesson, both Geoff and Gavin had come to the agreement that most residents of Achievement City were here for not only their own protection, but the protection of others as well.

During his stay, Gavin learned that Ryan was insane, but in a curious way. If you cooperated and answered the questions he had (although some of the questions were really strange, he dutifully answered the ex-king anyway) then he wouldn’t suddenly switch from being caring and gentle to terrifyingly devious in getting what he wanted. He never stayed long to chat, only swinging by to give his patient more potions and help re-bandage some of the more severe injuries he had, but Gavin had gathered that Ryan had someone named Edgar living in his house, and while he didn’t know much more than that, he quickly determined that he _really_ didn’t want to be in Edgar’s shoes.

Or hooves, considering Gavin was starting to think Edgar was a cow. But that was so incredibly strange he hadn’t really started to believe it yet.

Jack, he found out almost immediately, was just a big cuddly mother-hen despite the fact he was easily two heads taller than Gavin if he were able to stand, and almost always had two large axes strapped to his back. The weapons were for chopping down trees so he could build nice little houses out in the woods or to fix up the houses of the other Hunters, and his intimidating size was all from his manual labor of mining for stone and lovely baked goods he made. Gavin had never had a ‘cookie’ before, but after Jack brought him a batch as a peace offering for wanting to kill him initially, he immediately decided that Humans couldn’t be _all_ bad if they made heavenly things like these.

Upon realizing Gavin had never had much Human food before, Jack had taken over responsibility for bringing him three meals a day with all sorts of strange things Gavin had never seen or tired before, and they spent hearty meals together talking about where to find the best coal mines in the area or where the prettiest trees grew for certain houses. Jack’s laugh was deep and amused most times, his brown eyes twinkling fondly no matter what Gavin found himself talking about in a way that gave him an oddly warm feeling.

Ray came by for apparently no reason other than to spare him a smile or occasionally sit down and chat. He had a very dry, sarcastic humor that didn’t make for deep conversations, but it was an easy, steady flow of talking that got Gavin out of his shell more and finally tossing off all the old hesitations he had about interacting with them. Gavin was unsure what the darker-skinned human did during the days, but he got the feeling he just liked to wander around the trees and see the sights his home had to offer.

Sometimes he’d talk about this mission or that task Geoff had set for him for the day, but other than that he mainly just talked about the things he’d seen, like the snow on the northern mountain or the new bend in the river to the south. He brought little things with him too, like stones he’d picked from the creek bed or an apple he’d found while climbing the trees, and, most often, roses.

Once or twice he’d wandered in with his black armor on again after going on a hunt for Geoff, and Gavin had asked about the roses on his breastplate. He’d just shrugged and said he loved them—and indeed, the scent clung to him at all times and he always seemed to have one his person to offer the recovering Spark in his visits. In describing his house next door, he said it was simple and he didn’t care much about it—all he cared about was the roses he grew around it. He’d even confided that he had three other patches of roses way out in the forest that he tended to, which he didn’t tell the others about since sometimes they liked to prank his main one outside his house for fun; this way he always has at least one garden out there untouched to visit during his day.

He was a very calming presence to be around, and his wry smirk had a way of making Gavin smile through his stiff limbs and slow recovery. It was with him that the Spark actually laughed aloud for the first time in his life, not just hissed happily. It was an experience that he was eager to try out again, and he found every excuse he could to laugh after that, much to Jack and Geoff’s amusement.

Michael only visited once in the two weeks Gavin had been bed-bound in Geoff’s house, barely able to sit up although his strength was slowly and surely returning with Jack’s food, Ryan’s healing, and Ray and Geoff’s casual encouragement, which when all combined formed a very nice support system Gavin didn’t think he’d ever had.

That first time the warrior Human came to visit was three days after he’d first woken up and had that strange conversation with Geoff. He was still a little groggy from Ryan’s potions, but he clearly recognized the bear pelt as Michael’s when he came to sit by him. He didn’t say much, just murmured something softly that sounded awfully like an apology before quickly standing again and leaving. Gavin would’ve been discouraged if the bad-tempered man hadn’t been the one who’d carried him who knows how many miles back to this place just to save him. Gruff exterior aside, his actions spoke for themselves.

He came back over a week later, the day Gavin figured marked two weeks he’d spent in Achievement City, and after all that time of hearsay from the other four Hunters, the Spark was prepared when the warrior finally returned.  

He’d been in the process of sitting up, which was more difficult than one would think. Ryan really hadn’t been lying when he’d said he lost muscle mass from lack of movement and food and all the after-effects of dehydration, and he was acutely aware of it every time he tried to do absolutely _anything._ Sitting up was one thing he’d gotten fairly good at, particularly in the last couple of days, but he was still unsteady as he pushed himself up.

Which, worked against him when someone kicked open the metal door ten feet from his left with an almighty bang that echoed through Geoff’s ridiculously oversized house deeply. Gavin yelped in surprise, and then his hand slipped off the bed from his little tense jump, causing him to fall ungracefully off the far side of the structure in a heap of flailing, weakened limbs. Fortunately he managed to get his arms underneath him to keep from smashing his face into the stone, but the most energy he had after that brief stunt only let him roll over onto his back and hiss uncomfortably at the ache in his arms. God he was pathetic.

“Shit, my bad,”

Gavin’s heart leapt when he realized he hadn’t heard that voice around this cave in quite some time, and it skipped again when a familiar bear pelt came into view as Michael half jogged over to inspect the fallen Spark. Quickly as he could, Gavin pushed himself up into a sitting position despite his lack of energy, suddenly desperate to not look quite so weak in front of the warrior. Unlike the rest of the Humans here, who sometimes wore their armor and sometimes wore simpler outfits when not leaving the city, Michael had not changed in all the times Gavin had glimpsed him this far: his bear pelt was draped over him proudly, his well-worn armor firmly in place, a diamond sword strapped to his hip and within easy reach. Even the look on his face was the same—a slightly angry, slightly defensive look of wary disquiet and confusion plastered on his expression.

“Not your fault,” Gavin answered half-heartedly back, wondering why he’d gone so quiet. He found himself talking Geoff’s ear off every night and being as loud as any other Human he’d ever seen when he talked to Ray or Jack, but for some reason he was reverting, going back to being shy and quiet. Perhaps because he’d gotten used to the rest of them by now, and Michael was still… unknown.

He trusted him of course. Michael was the one who’d brought him here in the first place, so of course he trusted the man. Especially after Geoff’s explanation of his rules and how dutiful Michael was in following through with them, he _knew_ there was no need to fear him.

Maybe it was the way his mere presence simply screamed “warrior”, how the violence he seemed willing and able to commit was seeping into the air around him, how his expression twisted from angry to _angrier_ rather than being open and friendly like everyone else in the city was able to be.   

“Yeah it is,” He snorted bluntly, and then strode forward before Gavin could respond to scoop the Spark off the ground and deposit him back on the bed, surprisingly gently. Michael seemed like the type of guy who’d throw someone rather than place them carefully down, but Gavin was thankful nonetheless.

“Uh, thank you.” He murmured uncertainly.

Michael opened his mouth to respond when the door got thrown open again with equal force as before, and the warrior man immediately ducked behind the bed and crouched as if hiding. Gavin blinked once at him, and he waved his hands frantically, putting a finger over his lips to signal being quiet.

Turning to look at the door and blinking at the sunlight, he saw Jack storm in a couple steps, also blinking to let his eyes adjust to the darkness. He looked down-right _furious_ (and a man of his size looking that way was twice as scary as it’d normally be—or would be, if Gavin didn’t know that he was a big softie inside).

“Jack?” he yelped in slight surprise.

“Have you seen Michael?” He skipped the pleasantries and went straight to the heart of the matter.

Gavin didn’t even pause. “Nope.” He said brightly. “What did he do? Set your house on fire again?”

“ _Yes,”_ Jack seethed, “Or, blew it up actually.” He corrected, but still didn’t sound very happy about it. And then he turned on his heel and stormed out the door muttering darkly under his breath about all the ways he was going to make the younger man pay.

The door slammed shut, and Gavin’s heart leapt for a third time today when a peal of what could only be _giggles_ exploded from behind him, and he turned to give the bear man a wide-eyed look as he stood properly and gripped his stomach as he laughed.

“Ha! You shoulda seen his face! I put a switch plate under his door mat and it set TNT off in his basement and he got knocked flat on his fat ass! God, wish I had a picture of that.” He howled, and then pretended to wipe a tear away as the laughter subsided.

Gavin just stared at him. That was _not_ the same man he’d been exposed to before. This guy… actually _seemed_ like he was only a year older than him.

“You should put lava in his attic.” He heard himself say, and both of them blinked in surprise at the words.

“Yeah? How the fuck do I do that without burning the thing down before he gets there?” Michael shot back roughly.

“With dirt. And a metal plate. And if you add a piece of wood to his house that doesn’t belong, when he fixes it it’ll let the lava go.” He explained.

Now the man looked honestly surprised. “The guy’s enough of a neat freak that he’d fall for it in a second too.” He admitted, and then tilted his head to the side, looking at the Spark in front of him curiously. “I’ll uh… save that for when you’re more mobile. You can help me do it.”

Gavin did a double-take.

“Wait, really?” He squeaked, unable to stop the surge of hope that shot through him. That actually sounded like a lot of fun.

Michael nodded with a shrug. “Yeah. Really.” He gave an awkward half-smile and then made for the door without another word, carefully peaking outside the door to see if the coast was clear of Jack before slipping out into the bright daylight. Gavin watched him go with a warm feeling spreading through his chest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	5. Sunsets

  “Woah.”

“I know, impressive isn’t it?”

“ _Impressive…_ and ridiculous.” Gavin drawled, craning his head back to try and see the top of the massive stone monolith in front of him. Why _anyone_ would need a dwelling that big was beyond him. If he’d thought it was big from staying inside of it, it was nothing compared to how huge it was from the outside, when he realized just how tall it _really was._

“Oi,” Geoff grumbled half-heartedly, but the smirk on his lips told them he wasn’t really put out by the jibe. In fact, he seemed rather proud.

“It is helpful in navigating though,” Ray chimed in with an amused smile from where he was nestled under the Spark’s arm, his own hand wrapped around his waist as he helped Gavin stand for the first time in weeks. “You can see it for miles in any direction unless you’re directly behind the northern mountain. It’s good in telling you where you are.”

Gavin hummed thoughtfully, admitting that point. He had seen it in the distance before in his travels, but hadn’t gotten this close before—much less close enough to live in it as he had been for quite some time now.

Still, it was a bit excessive.

Well, more than a bit really.

“And over here we have Ryan’s house.” Geoff continued their tour and gestured to the more reasonably sized dirt hovel clinging to the side of the stone giant beside it. It had paintings of humans in white on it, and a warm torch over its entrance.

But the fact that Gavin knew its owner meant he wasn’t going within a hundred miles of it. Ray laughed loudly, spotting his new friend’s attitude in his body language.

“Relax, Ryan’s not going to just pull you in and bury you in a hole if you stray too close to his door, he promised he wouldn’t.” He comforted in a far too cheery way to be very comforting. “Most of us don’t go in there often anyway. Michael and I do once in a while, in our occasional attempts to free Edgar, but it never really works.” He sighed, shaking his head a little.

“And it’s not going to work!” Gavin jumped slightly when Ryan’s voice exploded from inside the house a ways away, evidentially having heard them talking. Unwillingly, Gavin felt a sort of sympathy for the poor cow, having also known what it was like to be trapped in a hole for extended periods of time. Although, he wasn’t really fond of comparing himself to a cow, and despite being right next door he’d never so much as heard a peep from a bovine neighbor, and Ryan’s attitude was always… _fond_ in a way, even if it was creepy as hell, so Edgar might not be _so_ bad off…

He pushed those thoughts away quickly. Even if he had a problem with the situation, he wasn’t in a position to do anything about it, especially since Ryan didn’t seem entirely against putting him in a hole to begin with. Best leave that to Ray and Michael…

Geoff rolled his eyes and turned around, ignoring the interruption. “Over there is Jack’s house—the nice one, predictably. Next to it is the old storage house before we built the big vault under my house, then Michael’s beside it and then Ray’s.” Gavin’s eyes trailed over the dwellings curiously, taking in the nice craftsmanship of Jack’s, the odd slap-dash storage house, the simple, warm looking house that belonged to their resident warrior, and then Ray’s home, which was even shabbier than Ryan’s. The difference though, were the roses growing in the earth and hill around the home, which probably could’ve told him exactly where the rose man lived without the explanation.

“The beach is around Geoff’s house,” Ray tacked on, moving them off to the side and past Ryan’s house. Gavin moved stiffly, limping slightly still and unable to go much faster than a shuffle, but Ray was patient and held him upright even though his feet stumbled and his knees kept giving out. He was much stronger than he’d been before, but lying down for so long had left his muscles lacking. Jack and Ryan had gotten him standing and walking to the end of Geoff’s house and back inside once or twice, but today he’d finally left the dark confines and stepped out into the sunlight.

Or, the twilight, seeing as he just had a better penchant for the dark. He’d explained to them all at this point how Sparks grew up in utter darkness, how some withered in sunlight so they all chose to avoid it too instead of risking it and finding out if you were one of those few. The shadows of Geoff’s dwelling hadn’t bothered him, it’d actually been comforting, which was why he hadn’t been complained at being cooped up in there for so long.

Despite his acceptance of his sanctuary/keeping, Jack had declared that holding him inside felt way too much like they were just locking him in a nicer hole, and since he still felt a tad guilty for trying to put the young Spark down one when they first met, he’d decided to push for this little outing today. It did feel good in a way, to be out and know that once he was able to leave under his own power he could—it was like a reminder that he _wasn’t_ a prisoner here.

Although truthfully, Gavin never actually believed he was a prisoner here in the first place, not after that first conversation with Geoff.

And… he wasn’t exactly feeling an abundance of need to get out of here quickly. Where else would he go? At least here he had Geoff and Ray, and Jack and… maybe even Ryan sometimes. And Michael’s promise to help him pull a prank on Jack’s house.

If he left, he’d have none of that.

“And there’s the ladder to the top of Geoff’s house,” Ray nodded towards a wooden line on the side of the monolith behind them as they finally made it to the beach, and he chuckled a little when Gavin whipped around and fixed him with a look from under the shadows of his hood. “And yes, when you’re more mobile we’ll go up there. It’s a long way up though, so you can’t get tired halfway or you’ll be taking the hard way down.”

Gavin laughed a little. “Wouldn’t be the first time,” he admitted. The height didn’t bother him; although the experience of having his entire body broken from a fall wasn’t one he was overly interested in repeating. The lure of seeing the world from the top of the tallest tower he thought he’d ever seen—including all the mountains he’d ever traversed in his life— was too much to daunt him for long.

“What wouldn’t be the first time? Falling to your death?” Ray snorted sarcastically as he helped lower the Spark to sit stiffly on a sand bank before joining him, watching the sun sink lower on the horizon before them. The entire sky turned neon oranges and pinks, dark blues and purples seeping in slowly behind them, creating an odd mix of light and darkness.

Geoff and Jack had gotten distracted on their walk behind the monolith, pointing to a field off to the side and gesturing between themselves so Gavin knew Geoff had gotten an idea to build something and was running it by his second in command. Their voices could only just be heard if the two younger men sat quietly, so they were alone for the moment.

Which was why Gavin didn’t freak at his accidental admission. He liked Ray a lot, and it wasn’t like he was going to now have to spill in front of a group… and Ray, of everyone, was the chillest and least easily worried. So he only paused a moment.

“Well… actually yeah. Not a fond memory, if you can imagine.” He admitted cautiously, watching Ray frown in confusion out of the corner of his eye.

“Tell me you didn’t do a Nether trip too?” He demanded, and now Gavin turned to frown at _him_ instead.

“What does the other side have to do with anything?”

“You can’t die and yet not die without a trip to the Nether, right?”

“… so… Humans go to the other side and suddenly they can’t die?”

“No, more like five specifically insane Humans go to the Nether and defeat a crazy witch lady and steal her regeneration potions so that when we die we just end up back in Achievement City.”

“…ok, _what!?”_

Ray shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “It’s a long story. It was an urban legend from Ryan’s kingdom that he _swore_ was real, and, you know, we’re all pretty insane, so we agreed when Geoff thought it’d be a fun game: to see who could find the witch lady first. Of course then Jack accidentally stumbled upon her and she tried to toss him in lava, but Geoff and I pulled him back out before he could burn _completely_ to death and Michael and Ryan went ape-shit and ended up killing her. We had to bunker down at her hide-out when a couple of Ghast attacked and Jack was dying from his burns and it was all horrible and stuff… and we sort of found her potions supply. Jack was going to die anyway, so Ryan read all these strange books she had and sort of just guessed in giving him one of the potions and then he died… and when we finally all made it back to this world we found him fixing his house, perfectly fine and demanding to know what took us so long to come home. We figured out what had happened and all took a potion then too, and now every time we die in one of Geoff’s crazy-ass games we just regenerate here. In short… I’ve fallen to my death a couple times too.”

Gavin was shocked.

These people were _stupidly_ insane _._  

But at the same time… that was pretty cool. It was like they’d found their own way to replicate mob life. And a part of him actually felt a little jealous. They had _created_ their own clan and Tome sort of, whereas he…

His throat closed up a little, and he cleared it quickly.

“You really are crazy. Be thankful not all Humans are this crazy, or you’d all die out immediately.” He muttered, and Ray lost his hesitation at the confession and just let out a cackling laugh.

“We’re a bit more mentally unstable than most others, I’ll admit.” He chuckled heartily. After a minute of giggling to himself he caught his breath, and refocused. “So what did _you_ mean about not dying? If you didn’t go to the Nether to drink a magic potion?” He said, slightly sarcastically, and Gavin took a breath to steady himself. He hadn’t given this much to his old clan in a long time, and it picked at old, unhealed scars unpleasantly.

But… maybe it was time to open up a bit. He _wanted_ Ray to know, in some capacity, to understand more about the Spark he’d saved from a hole in the ground.

“Not dying is just sort of something that happens in mob life.” He began cautiously. “I told you about Tomes, how they’re the homes of mob clans… but there’s also a bit more than that. There’s this thing, called a center, inside every Spark Tome at least. If you blow… you end up back at your clan center. Just like you described you appearing back at Achievement City.”

Ray looked thoroughly surprised, his brows arched high. “So… we basically stole a Spark regeneration potion, is what you’re saying?”

Gavin’s heart leapt into his throat. “Y-yeah. You could say that.” He didn’t know why that affected him so much. Maybe it was because he didn’t have it anymore, and they were _Humans…_

No. They were good Humans. If any Humans deserved the chance to be together despite their stupid stunts… maybe they did. They were the kind of clan Gavin sort of wished his own people had been—friendly, loving, fun, welcoming…

Even if they were insane. Even if they did almost kill him by trapping him in a hole. Somehow they’d made up for that and more in the weeks since, although he had no idea how that had happened.

“Wait a second,” Ray cocked his head slightly, thinking. “So you only get sent to your Tome if you blow… and you said you _have_ fallen to your death… does that mean you blew up? I thought you said you couldn’t!”

“I can’t, not at will like every other Spark.” Gavin assured him quickly. “But… it has happened on occasion, but only after I’ve been killed. My corpse is apparently able to blow up when I’m already long gone.”

Ray rolled his eyes. “So if you’d died while Ryan was trying to heal you, you’d have taken out a lower chunk of Geoff’s house?”

“Yeah probably.”

“And you didn’t feel like mentioning that?”

“Well, since Geoff would be the one entirely responsible for my death, I didn’t really care.”

“… touché.” Ray shook his head, taking all this in. He suddenly smirked a little. “So if I were to push you off the top of Geoff’s house, you’d come back like the rest of us? After blowing a chunk out of the ground that is.” he snickered.

Gavin swallowed with some difficulty.

“Ah… no, not anymore.”

Ray’s smile slipped away. “Why not?”

“Well, for one, it took me almost six years to walk here from where my center used to be, so I wouldn’t be making it back to Achievement City for a long time. And more importantly…because… my center was destroyed a long time ago. If I die now, it’s for good.”

Ray stared at him, looking a bit pale and concerned.

“So… this recent near-death experience for you _really was_ pretty close to death.” He hummed quietly.

“Yeah.” Gavin nodded absently, watching as the sun finally sank fully below the horizon, only a small patch of the sky lit up by its residual glow. The darkness was sort of comforting, just as it was painful as he thought of his old Tome.

“Can… can I ask what happened to it?”

Gavin felt bitterness that he hadn’t felt for a long, long time seep into him that he tried to ignore. But his fists clenched a little, unwillingly.

“Humans destroyed it.”

Ray was silent for a moment, and Gavin didn’t bother to look at him.

“And your clan?”

“Humans destroyed them too.” He sensed Ray wilt a little, and he closed his eyes against the night. “The fact I can’t light at will is the only reason I outlived them all. After it happened, I headed east and never looked back until I got hooked by a fishing pole of all things.” He rolled his eyes slightly, finally looking over to see the small smile that earned from the rose man beside him.

“Gavin…” He paused and sighed a little. “I can’t apologize for people I never met, but I can say that I’m sorry it happened at all.” He said honestly, and Gavin felt a surprised surge of gratitude at the words.

“Thanks Ray.” He smiled earnestly. “They… never did like me much anyway. And it was a long time ago at this point.” He admitted uncomfortably.

“Doesn’t make it hurt any less.” Ray countered placidly. Gavin gave him a measuring look.

“True.” He relented, a tad suspiciously. “Sounds like you know from personal experience.”

At first Ray just shrugged, brushing it off. But, after a long minute of pregnant silence in which neither of them changed the subject, he eventually nodded slowly.

“It… it was a fire.” He said, eyes glued to the sand at his feet and nothing else. “My parents were just _normal_ people, the entire village was, really; nothing interesting ever happened there. But there was a fire. The entire town was just ash by morning. The only reason I lived was because I’d fallen asleep under the rose bushes in the garden, even though my mother always yelled at me for it. I’d just watered them that evening, so the soil and the leaves were still wet… they were charred, but by some miracle they didn’t catch. Their perfume saved me from the smoke, their height saved me from feeling the heat. I woke up and everything was gone.”

Gavin felt at a loss of something to say. Instead, he just leaned his shoulder into Ray’s, and he leaned back, accepting the silent comfort without comment.

He continued, “At least I don’t have someone or something to _blame_ for losing them all. I only have something to be grateful towards that I didn’t join them.”

Gavin hummed softly. “I never thought of it that way.” He admitted. He should be thankful he couldn’t light, seeing as it meant he’d lived past his clan’s destruction and ended up here instead of back in a clan that never liked him anyway.

But… it was mostly _because_ he couldn’t light that they hated him to begin with, and it was because he wasn’t that great of a Spark that they died at all. It was a double edged sword that… he just couldn’t bring himself to be grateful for just yet.

Ray seemed to sense this, and spared him a wry, knowing smile. “But we’re here now, aren’t we? We have a new family, and it’s not so bad, is it?”

Gavin titled his head. “Family is a Human concept. And you’re all too weird to be a clan even if you tried. But… I do like it here. It’s not like wandering in the wilds, it’s not like being back with my clan, or like being in a Tome. It’s different, but… I do like it, in an odd way. I’d want to stay if Geoff let’s me.”

Ray chuckled lightly. “Dude, he loves having you here. Who else will talk about that boring building stuff for hours with him? I haven’t ever heard Geoff laugh the way he does when he laughs at you, so I don’t think you’re going to be _allowed_ to go anywhere, even if that seems like we’re still keeping you hostage.”

Instead of feeling alarmed by that, Gavin felt his chest swell in warmth.

“He told me he’s laughing _with_ me.” He pouted jokingly.

Ray grinned, “He’s totally lying.”

They shared an amused smile between them, despite one of them being covered in a hood shrouded completely in darkness now that night had properly fallen. Somehow Ray knew it anyway, without having to see it, just like a fellow Spark would. Despite feeling a bit weary from all they’d just revealed, Gavin felt lighter too. It felt good to talk, and more importantly, to share with someone who understood to a point. He wasn’t glad that Ray had suffered too, but he _was_ thankful he’d found someone to bear a shared burden with. It wasn’t so lonely.

“What are you two princesses gossiping about over here?” The man they’d just been discussing demanded as he and Jack trailed up to them, torches from Geoff’s house barely illuminating their shadows as they got closer. Gavin didn’t need it though, he was used to sensing others in the dark, and he could feel them clear as day without having to see them at all.

“You,” Ray shot back, half honest and half joking, and Geoff swatted the back of his head playfully.

“Come on you two, I think that’s enough for one day.” Jack, ever the reasonable one, gestured for them to get up and leaned down to help Ray pull Gavin to his feet. “You must be exhausted,” He offered to the young Spark, who could only shrug noncommittally back.

Truth was, he didn’t think he’d felt this alive in a long time.


	6. Building with Fire

“-so there was this chick, and she was all like ‘ _the fuck are you doing in my house!?’_ and I’m like, the hell I’m going back out there with all these endermen on my tail, I’m so fucked, but she wouldn’t give in! Kept screeching like a banshee about someone named Carl, and I ended up just plugging my ears until I thought to coast was clear.” Ray spun his tale distractedly, more focused on picking the dead leaves from his rose bushes and occasionally clipping a flower and slipping it into his shoulder bag carefully.

Gavin just listened from where he sat on the dirt mound beside Ray’s door, watching him garden quietly and chuckling along with the rose man’s tales. Ray didn’t really need his input, he was just talking for the sake of talking and sometimes he just fell silent and the two of them would sit there and enjoy the quiet day in compatible company. These stories were mainly about the Hunters’ past adventures, all of which Gavin loved to hear now that he knew them a bit better. Humans were funny things, and these Humans in particular were stranger than most, but infinitely more exciting.

The past two weeks had mainly been him and Ray hanging out on the beach behind Geoff’s house or in Ray’s garden, interspersed with slow walks farther out so Ray could show him the landscape he knew so well, and even one of his secret gardens the others didn’t know about. Gavin wasn’t oblivious to the way Geoff and Jack would wait for them to return every time the two younger fellows left, and he didn’t miss the way both older men looked relieved to see that their “pet Spark” had actually returned instead of disappearing into the woods now that he was more mobile.

And he _was_ more mobile—every day he got loads better, much faster than he had before. He regained his steady gait in just a couple days, and could even run with Ray along the southern river for some short distances without much trouble now. Still, the sitting quietly and enjoying the sunlight had turned into one of his favorite pastimes—there was just something so peaceful about just being with his new friend while the younger man tended to his beloved gardens.

Although it was tied with how much he liked having someone _happy_ he’d returned again, even _worried_ that he might not, rather than just politely looking for an excuse to get rid of him. It felt like he was walking on cloud nine every time he saw those looks of relief on the others’ faces when he walked back into Achievement City after a day of exploring with Ray.

“Oi, dipshit.” A voice broke the quiet afternoon, and both younger men glanced up automatically to see Geoff trailing out of his house with a pickaxe slung over his shoulder lazily.

“He’s talking to you,” Ray turned and told his Spark friend succinctly, and Gavin rolled his eyes.

“Well, this time yeah, but for the record you’re _both_ dipshits.” Geoff clarified, waltzing up and standing outside Ray’s garden. He was wearing his green and black armor again, his yellow visor over his eyes in the same way Gavin had first seen him. It made him hesitate for a split second, but he now knew this Human meant him no harm, so he just stood and went over to the Hunters’ leader curiously.

“What’s up?” He chirped eagerly.

Geoff point off into the woods. “I’m off to start a new build, wanna come?”

Both Gavin and Ray froze and gave him twin big-eyed looks.

“Won’t that mean he can’t play then!?” Ray exclaimed, and Gavin felt a bit dizzy. He hadn’t even considered that he might be able to join in on the Hunters’ games before, much less get to _build one._

“Well, sure, if he wants, but these things are deadly as fuck and he’s not gonna come back to life like we are. Figure he could at least get off his ass and help me work on it beforehand if he chooses not to play.” Geoff shrugged, nodding towards Gavin again, who let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. They’d all eventually learned a tiny portion of his background—mainly the death=explosion and _permanent_ death bit, since Ray thought it pertinent information for everyone he was living with to know, just in case.

“I don’t know how much help I’ll be,” He admitted, his voice a tad high. “I’ve never… I’m mean-!”

“Just hand me stuff and help me place things where they need to go. I already know what I’m going to do, but it’ll take a few days to build. Oh, and we’re gonna need a lot of green wool, so if you see any cacti on the trip there let me know.” He chatted, marching past them and towards the northern tree line. Gavin and Ray stared after him in shock.

He was almost gone beneath the shade of the tree line when Ray went over and shoved Gavin lightly. The Spark shook his head rapidly and spared Ray one last bewildered look before jogging lightly to chase after the Hunter in the trees.

000

“-and then we’ll cover it wool, so it’ll be like a playing field of sorts. Got it?” Geoff explained as they passed beneath the shadow of a large stone tower with flames atop it—a previous build of his for a game the Hunters had already played. Gavin was a bit confused, but he got the general picture of what Geoff’s mental image was when they finally came to a stop and the Human glanced around a small clearing in satisfaction. “This looks about good. We’ll need to start by clearing some of these trees and then take a mining trip to get more stone.”He slipped a spare axe from his bag and tossed it to him, and Gavin caught it uncertainly.

Geoff spared him a wry smile, and showed him what to do patiently. The day progressed alarmingly quickly, with Geoff chatting happily about the rules he was going to make for the game, and long discussions about how to use the terrain to their advantage. Gavin learned all about clearing forests quickly and finding the right stone in the earth to build with, how to make a forge and a table to craft more tools, how to use all the tools he needed and how to make their structures stand steadily and not topple. There was definitely an art to it, and he was thrilled when Geoff admitted that he was a natural like he and Jack were.

Michael and Ray never picked the building stuff up, although Ray was a fantastic gardener and could keep any plant they needed alive in his gardens. Michael had a sense for precious metals and was their “diamond guy”, meaning he often left on long expeditions to search out diamonds, gold, and redstone, or to go on small quests to trade various items to the kingdom’s villagers for emeralds (which was where he was now, Geoff pointed out). Ryan had a knack for the animal kingdom, medicine, and redstone circuitry, which Gavin was fascinated by but Geoff wasn’t an authority on so he couldn’t really answer a lot of his questions.

Jack had a talent for wood structures and foraging or mining as needed, his strength meaning he could go longer and carry back more than the others on deep-earth expeditions. Geoff was a sort of jack-of-all trades with the vision and the patience to make the giant structures scattered about in Achievement City, and Gavin felt a splash of pride when Geoff admitted he seemed to be taking after him instead of the others. Not that it meant much at the moment when Gavin hadn’t even tried searching for diamonds or growing plants or wrangling farm animals.

But he was eager to try it all, and see where he fell. He even had a reason to talk to Ryan now, and his curiosity about how redstone worked might even be enough to get over his fear of the crazy Human.

“But you don’t build the Tomes you lived in?”Geoff wondered aloud as they rested on the side of what they’d built thus far. It only looked like a giant stone wall at this point, but they’d collected almost all the materials they’d needed and cleared the proper space, so Gavin felt confident they might be able to finish the build tomorrow or the next day—much earlier than Geoff would have been able to if he’d been doing it by himself.

“Our centers just _were_ , you know?” Gavin tried to explain. “We built ways of protecting them, sure, but our ancestors did that, not any of the younger generations although we know _how_ if it came down to it. It’s the same building method the Dark Ones use to build their dragon temples.”

“ _Dragon temples?!”_

“Do Humans not know about the dragon?”

“Dr- wha- _what dragon?”_

Gavin giggled happily at his flabbergasted expression. “The _dragon_! The Dark Ones—or _Endermen_ as you call them—they’re sometimes referred to as Dragon People. She’s like them, with dark scales and purple mist for breath and big eyes. She lives in another realm, like the other side but different in a way, a place with white stone that floats in the air and endless stars that never end. If you fall off the side of one of the islands, you’ll fall forever—it’s endless, which is why they call it The End, I suppose, just to be annoyingly ironic.”

Geoff stared at him, shaking his head in disbelief. “It sounds like you’ve been there.”

“Only a couple times. There’s not much to see honestly, and the Dark Dragon isn’t too fond of visitors. Still, it’s a quiet place to visit and very little danger to it besides falling off the edge or being stupid enough to stand directly underneath the dragon’s temple.”

He sighed a bit in amusement. “So it’s a nice alternate dimension to relax in? That’s essentially what you’re saying.” Gavin laughed a little at that, and after a moment of hesitation, Geoff joined in too. “So, what is this building method? If you haven’t used a pickaxe until today, how do they do it?”

“We use the dark rock. Obsidian, right?”

Geoff gave him an alarmed look. “How do you do that without a diamond pickaxe?”

“With water and lava. Wait, diamond pickaxes can break obsidian?”

“Well yeah, that’s how we do it at least. What do you mean water and lava? I know we _find_ obsidian where water and lava meet, but how would you place it where you needed it?”

“You pick it up and you put it where you need it, what else?”

“Pick what up!?”

“The lava! Then you pour the water on top and there you go! I figure chiseling away at it would take _ages_ , right?”

Geoff stared at him. He stared back, failing to see how this was so difficult.

“What?” He demanded.

“You do realize Humans can’t pick up lava, right?”

Now Gavin was staring at him. “Well yeah… but, like, not even with a container?”

“Lava _burns_ things Gav, like instantly. Even if you could put it in a bucket you’d melt from the heat!”

Gavin turned a looked out at the forest blankly. “Huh.”

“What do you mean, _huh?_ Are you saying you’ve picked up lava before?”

“Well…”

“Oh no, I gotta see this.” Geoff stood abruptly and grabbed his arm to pull him to his feet. Gavin was startled at first, but quickly decided he kinda liked knowing something about building that Geoff didn’t, especially after a full day of the Human having to explain every little thing to him. He was a fast learner, or so Geoff said, but still; he liked having something special to him.

So he let himself be pulled down their half built tower and back through the forest to their little crafting station, in which Geoff quickly made a bucket from some iron they’d found earlier. Gavin copied his motions and made a second one, also sparing a moment to grab some spare dirt they’d displaced in clearing the area, earning himself a curious eyebrow, but he just shrugged and followed when the Hunter turned and went back into their mine.

They’d passed some lava earlier, deep in a natural tunnel, and it only took a couple minutes to find it again. Geoff paused, standing well back from it while Gavin just waltzed up close until he had to watch to make sure his boots didn’t _actually_ touch the molten rock.

“And that isn’t too hot?” The Human’s voice sounded slightly worried, and Gavin smirked to himself.

“Well it’s _hot_ , but not enough that I _can’t_ get close, ya know?” He explained, kneeling down on one knee so that he was barely an inch from the sloshing, thick pool of fire. He gripped the bucket he’d made tightly by its handle, wondering if this was going to backfire on him. Usually his people would use flat stones they found to transport lava, but a bucket just seemed more efficient. And iron was a stone in itself, so theoretically nothing should be different.

He took a breath and hissed the words his mother had taught him as a child. Like a Dark One’s prayer to their dragon, or a Boney’s breath before enchanting a human’s decaying form. Only this one was for Sparks, and it spoke to the earth, letting it not be burned. Gavin may not have a light, and therefore he may not have the fire inside of him that should have let him control the fire around him, but if he asked nicely the fire would listen to him anyway. Lava in particular, was always very welcoming, unlike regular open flame.

He was relieved it didn’t backfire on him now that he was showing someone else this one talent of his people he could actually do well, when the lava flowed slowly into the bucket he lowered beneath its surface, and then rested calmly in its vessel when he pulled it back out. He stood and backed up a step, turning and grinning beneath his scarf to the Human behind him as he offered up the bucket triumphantly for him to see.

Geoff’s mouth was hanging open as he stood there in shock.

“That…” He trailed off, not really knowing _what_ that was. “How… what did you…?”

“I’ve always liked lava best, you know. It much nicer than fire or earth or any of that,” Gavin explained, waltzing back over to him and grinning to himself once more when Geoff took a wary step back from the bucket of molten rock held casually by his side. He even started swinging it back and forth gently a bit, enjoying hearing it slosh and bubble and the way that made Geoff seem highly nervous.

“That… well, you’re fucking crazy, is what that is.” The Human huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and then headed back up the tunnel. Gavin giggled lightly and trailed after him, swinging the bucket more carelessly and laughing every time Geoff glanced back nervously at him. “So, what now? You put that somewhere and then pour water on top? Instant obsidian?”

“Yeah, essentially.” The Spark shrugged.

He shook his head with a dry look and a heavy sigh. “God damn. If only we’d known it was that easy.” He complained lightly.

“Hey,” Gavin perked up as they exited the cave in the light of a fading sunset, realizing something. “How do you get to the Nether? I mean like, how have you guys gotten there in the past?”

“There’s a portal about a _gazillion_ miles west of here that we found. Takes three days to walk to, not to mention surviving the trip with all the crap we collect there intact, which is why it’s such a pain. Ryan used all his nether warts refilling his potion stock after curing you, so we’ll have to make another trip eventually.” Geoff explained, shooting him a wary look. “Why?”

Gavin grinned broadly at him, although the hunter couldn’t see it (he had a feeling Geoff somehow knew what his face was doing anyway, despite the layers shielding him from the world). “Do you know all the uses of obsidian?”

“ _All_ the uses?! I know it’s strong as fuck, explosion and fire-proof, and can be used for an enchanting table. Is there something else?”

Gavin laughed, feeling a lot giddier than he remembered ever being before. He lifted the bucket in his hand triumphantly and nodded firmly.

“Geoffrey, I’m about to blow your mind.”


	7. One Diamond for One Portal Please

Michael’s back ached something fierce as he finally dragged himself into Achievement City, his bag filled to the brim with precious jewels, and a brand new diamond sword in his hand.

He didn’t know what Ryan wanted the emeralds for, but the bastard better be happy with the ones he’d brought back. Not only was it a full day’s walk to the nearest village, but then the idiots had wanted some _strange_ things to trade for the jewels. Like seriously, what the hell did they need _forty_ steaks for? And six chords of _birch_ wood specifically? He swore they were making shit up at this point in an attempt to deter him from trading for the stones—either that or they were just getting a kick of how stupid he looked running around and chasing chickens or clambering up trees in search of fifty damn apples or something.

It’d been a long couple weeks out doing those stupid tasks, but he had a lot of emeralds to show for it. Plus, he’d gotten a lovely new collection of diamonds, which were his favorite.

Three for his new sword after he’d traded his old one to a villager (for _ten_ freakin’ emeralds— the sucker) and six for new pickaxes for Geoff and Jack since with the amount that guy builds stuff his old one was only a couple weeks from breaking anyway. He had a back-up three in case something happened (someone fell in lava and needed a replacement immediately), and an extra two he’d just happened to have passed on his return trip home.

Despite the frustration the villagers had caused him and the weariness in his limbs as he stumbled into his house and began placing his goods where they belonged, he felt lighter than he usually did. The Gents always teased him about his diamond infatuation, but Ray got it at least, since he had his roses to compare.

Michael didn’t know exactly _why_ Ray loved roses so much, but he was absolutely certain there was an important reason. Similarly, no one knew the very important reason why Michael loved his diamonds so much, and her preferred to keep it that way.

And the truth was kind of stupid, but he kept it close to his heart anyway.

Back in his old kingdom, he hadn’t been anything special until he’d picked up a sword and showed the world what his temper could actually _do._ His father had been a baker, his mother a merchant, and they were both hardworking and sensible people. Neither of them had dreams of doing or being anything more in life than what they were, and they never wanted more than what they had, and for the most part Michael had agreed with that. The fact he’d turned out to be a great fighter was entirely a fluke—some guards had been messing with his friend and he’d turned their own blades against them quite effectively.

After that incident, people told him he should enter the tournament when it came time, so he did. And he won. And the next year too, and the year after that. They told him he was great, they told him he was strong, they told him all the things the greatest warriors loved to hear, but it all just seemed to skate off his back like water. It didn’t sink into his skin, it didn’t mean anything.

What meant something was Kerry, his best friend back then. His parents, his small town— _they_ meant something despite how boring it all was sometimes.

He didn’t want more than what he had, but he lost himself entirely when people threatened to take what he had away.

Kerry… wasn’t that great of a fighter. But he was bright like the sun and endearing and Michael kept him close and loved him like a little brother, and when _Kerry_ said he was a great fighter _then_ Michael believed it. And best of all, despite being small and jumpy and not that brave but naively eager to do good, was that Kerry had always been quick on his feet and just the most creative person Michael had ever met.

It was Kerry who traded his prized books and enchanted scrolls for the first three diamonds Michael had ever laid eyes on—and Kerry was the first one in probably the entire world smart enough to create a freakin’ _sword_ out of them.

His logic had been that diamonds were the strongest things out there, stronger than obsidian even, and Michael was the strongest person he knew. They matched.

Everyone always told him so, but Michael hadn’t ever _felt_ strong. He’d been fucking invincible with Kerry’s sword in his hand though, and nothing had ever felt _that_ good before.

But then, of course, naïve, _stupid_ Kerry entered the tournament. Michael, being the world’s greatest warrior and the “dumb muscle” everyone had thought he was at the time, was allowed to be present when his king had plotted his treachery against the rival kingdom attending the fights. Honestly he hadn’t cared, until he heard Kerry’s name as the scapegoat—just some poor, unknown son of a book-maker that no one had ever heard of and no one would ever miss if they killed him for his “treason”.

By the time Michael had stopped seeing red, almost every knight in his kingdom _and_ the king he’s spent years fighting for was dead, not to mention he was a hundred miles away and on the run from pretty much everyone. He’d left his parents, his town, and even Kerry in the dust but he couldn’t stop now, it was _way_ too late.

And if he’d ever felt invincible before, then he supposed that was what it was like to feel fragile—to be made of glass and wrapped in tissue paper in a world of iron and cannon blasts.

Diamonds were a reminder that strength wasn’t just muscle. They reminded him of a small, weak friend who was a lot brighter and a lot more valuable than all the strength he claimed to have—a reminder that he _wasn’t_ some mindless killer, at least not to one person in this world.

The pretty stones were _his_. His luck, his strength, his reason to keep marching forward despite the shit he had to wade through sometimes. They were a connection to a world that really liked to _tell_ him who and what he was, compared to who he actually wanted to be. Or who he actually _was,_ come to think of it, though he didn’t really know exactly what that was at the moment.

They just… _meant_ something, though he probably couldn’t put it into words correctly even if he tried.

With a sigh he stretched and glanced at his bed, thoroughly tempted to just collapse and sleep for the next week. But he huffed and straightened up, marching out the door once more to drop the emeralds off at Ryan’s.

On his walk he noted the obvious absence of anyone else. Geoff was one thing, he was probably off building, but it the sun was sinking pretty low so Jack was usually back and cooking something by now. Ray too, was usually wandering around after whatever he’d done that day, not usually making a racket but if he were within shouting distance he usually came up to greet him if Michael had been gone for any extended amount of time. Ryan was the wild card, but…

No, even he wasn’t home after Michael had banged on his door and waited for an answer—to which he got none. With a sigh he pushed the door open anyway and went about dumping the emeralds into the nearest chest he saw as quickly as possible without looking at whatever the guy had going on in here—which could be anything and Michael really didn’t want to know most of it.

“Hey Edgar,” he said semi-sarcastically to the hole in the ground behind him, but the abnormally quiet bovine didn’t answer as usual.

Normally he’d take an alone moment in Ryan’s house as an opportunity to try and free the poor cow, but (a) he was really fucking tired right now and not about to lift a cow out of a six foot hole, and (b) had no idea where Ryan was or when he was coming back. As of yet, Ryan hadn’t caught any of them freeing Edgar, he only calmly fixed it when he came home and discovered him missing. A calm Ryan was one thing—when maybe he had a moment to see the missing cow and collect himself before going about collecting the creature again—but if he were to catch someone taking his cow away?

Michael had never seen Ryan angry or even knew if he’d _be_ angry if he caught him in the act, but he didn’t want to find out.

No, “Free Edgar” missions were carefully planned in advance, thankyouverymuch.

He yawned a bit as he went around to the other houses, depositing three diamonds each in chests in Geoff and Jack’s houses, as well as the extra ones in the vault under Geoff’s monolith. That just left the extra two in his breast pocket, and as he climbed stiffly up the ladder from the vault he wondered idly what he should do with them. He wasn’t one for hanging onto knick-knacky stuff, he liked his things to have some sort of purpose, but two diamonds was just one short of almost every use he had for the jewels (not including armor, because since they all couldn’t die that was the biggest waste of the gems he could think of). He guessed he’d just have to hang onto them until he found more.

He spared the missing inhabitants of the city another dry thought as he made beeline for his house—more importantly, his bed. The sun hadn’t even touched the horizon yet, but it was close enough and he was tired enough to not care at all.

And then, there was movement to his left.

Without thought he had his sword in his hand and pointed at the non-familiar shape in their city, in a tensed and alert fighting stance immediately with all sleepiness banished from his mind. A second later he recognized the shape and took a shuffle step back, knowing that Creepers weren’t to be attacked flat out, but dealt with carefully.

And then, he heard the shape gasp sharply, suddenly remembering that Creepers weren’t to be _attacked_ at all.

He stiffened and dropped the sword to his side immediately, abruptly unsure of what to do. That could be Gavin he supposed, but it could also be another Creeper that’d just wandered in. Either way he wasn’t supposed to kill any of them, but how…?

“Gavin?” He frowned, unsure through the long shadows and uniform olive clothes and lime covering that every other Creeper out there had on.

The green figure seemed to shift a little. “… hi Michael.” It responded in a soft way, in a voice that ringed a bell in Michael’s head. Because everyone said his name the same way, except the funny Spark with a strange accent who, when he said it, twisted the name until it became something like “ _Micool”_ instead. The same voice in the same accent that had first said it when he was an inch from death in an obsidian hole.

He flinched internally, the memory cutting like a heated blade in his stomach.

“Ah… sorry.” He said awkwardly, putting the sword back in its place hastily so as not to seem a threat. He stood there for a second before realizing that the Spark in front of him was actually standing up— and holding a bucket of water in his hand actually. “Hey, uh… good to see you upright.” He offered half-heartedly.

He swallowed when the Spark drifted forwards a little, his shoulders moving like he was shrugging. “Thanks,” He said shyly. “Um… good to see you back. Ray said you were out looking for emeralds.”

Michael was only partly surprised at how comfortable the guy was with talking about Ray—when he’d left he was already becoming fast friends with Geoff, and Ray was easily likable once you got to know him. He wondered vaguely what he’d missed while he was gone, but brushed it off in favor of concentrating on the way Gavin was almost close enough to have a real conversation with, and yet still hovering slightly far enough away like he was ready to bolt at any second.

Michael focused on being as least-threatening looking as possible, but he had no idea if he was succeeding or not.

“Yeah, diamonds too. I went trading in the villages for the emeralds and mined some diamonds myself.”He explained, watching the way the Spark shifted a little as he spoke.

There was a beat of silence.

“Geoff was telling me to building stuff. He said you were bringing back diamonds for a pickaxe.” He broke the silence as if in a panic to end it.

Michael felt the surprise show on his face. He'd known Geoff and the Spark had been getting along over building things, but the diamond pickaxe was a trade secret they as Hunters had developed, after Michael had shown them his diamond sword. Gavin now knew, so...

“Ah, yeah. I got enough to make Jack one too, as well as myself a new sword.” He gestured to his hip where said blade was in his scabbard, and watched Gavin’s hooded head tilt like he was looking at it, and then back up at the Human in front of him.

“Why is your sword more blue and Geoff’s pickaxe more green?” He blurted out, and then tensed like he hadn’t meant to say that.

Michael smiled as non-threateningly as he could. “Depends on who makes them, really.” He answered with a shrug. Without thinking he slipped the two spare diamonds from his breast pocket and offered them to the Spark, who took a hesitant step closer to see them properly. “They’re pretty light-blue naturally mined, but change a bit depending on what you do with them.” He explained. He wasn’t an authority on much, but he knew something about diamonds, so that was a comfort at least.

“Wow,” He heard a soft sigh.

He felt himself smile on instinct. That was exactly the thing he’d said, in the exact same way all those years ago when Kerry had shown him the gems for the first time. Even now he still felt awed just to hold them in his hands when he pulled them painstakingly from solid rock, because of their beauty and… and just everything about them was captivating to him.

He wondered idly if this is what Kerry thought when he’d gotten the mighty Mogar to coo like a kid over shiny rocks way back then. Here he was now, a “wild” Creeper less than three feet away and mesmerized by the same pretty thing, and it was… nice.

“Here,” he grinned, putting one out and chuckling a little as the Spark fumbled a bit to get his gloved hand out from under his long, baggy sleeve and accept the rock, jumping a little as the object hit his hand.

Michael laughed internally to watch his head go from the diamond to the Human in rapid succession, like he couldn’t believe what he’d just been offered. “Really!?” He squawked in a way eerily similar to a bird rather than either a Human _or_ a Creeper.

“Yes really,” he rolled his eyes dismissively. “I can always find more,” he assured him with a smile.

“Thanks Michael!” He chirped, and he sounded so damn happy that the warrior felt his cheeks flood with heat without permission.

“Whatever,” He mumbled as the Spark paid his reaction no heed, but slipped the gem into a breast pocket of his own that Michael hadn’t even realized he had. Then again, with those patched and camouflaged coverings of his, it could’ve been made of pockets and Michael wouldn’t be able to tell just by looking.

“You should come down to the mine under Jack’s house,” Gavin interrupted the Human’s flushed thoughts abruptly, his voice going from soft to suddenly excited, like a little kid. Michael blinked at the sudden one-eighty in personality from the quiet creature he’d known until now. “I’m about to show the others something, that’s why I needed the water,” He explained, offering the bucket in his hand for inspection, which Michael took in curiously.

“Is that were everyone is?”

“Yeah! Come see!” He bounced a little and headed past him, towards Jack’s hosue like he was vibrating on the spot. He turned to gesture him forward a little more, and Michael froze.

From that angle, with the setting sun almost level with the horizon now and pointing straight at the Spark, dark gold sunbeams illuminated the once-shadowed underneath of Gavin’s oversized green hood.

Of course it still covered a lot, a dark green scarf the same pattern of the rest of the coverings covered his neck and mouth and nose, but his _eyes…_

His eyes were big and round as saucers like an exited puppy, and they were a soft, earthy green. Not like the Creeper coverings, or emeralds, or tree leaves, they were entirely something else, and Michael felt frozen to his core.

He’d known the Spark was Human-ish under all those layers from holding him in that hole, from carrying him back to Achievement City, from picking him off the floor and putting him back in his bed. He’d seen closed eyes when the guy had been nearly comatose on their trip back, he’d seen the shadows that time they talked in Geoff’s house. He’d caught a _glimpse_ of those eyes when Gavin had held his gaze and leveled him with his own words.

“ _I’m broken.”_ He’d reminded him icily, really sounding it too. Michael hadn’t ever hated himself more than he had right then.

His eyes then had been dark like the ocean at night, inky and impenetrable after the hell he’d been through, not to mention exhausted and still boldly unforgiving of the Humans who’d put him there. His eyes then had since haunted the dreams Michael never remembered in the morning, but he could clearly remember them now.

And just as they came back, they melted away in the glow of warm, happy green eyes that were looking at him in all the forgiveness and invitation and simple _joy_ that Michael hadn’t seen since…

Since Kerry.

Kerry’s eyes had been blue if he remembered correctly, but god damn it he’d never said no to eyes like that— he just wasn’t strong enough.

“Ok,” He heard himself say, his mind nearly blank from a daze that’d appeared out of nowhere.

Gavin watched him for a moment, and when it became apparent the Human wasn’t going to move on his own, he took a small step closer and hesitantly reached out to wrap his fingers into the cuff of the warrior’s brown sleeve and gently pull him forward.

Michael moved on autopilot, his feet moving across the ground as if the slightly nudge from his leather jacket sleeve was his brain’s own command, across the open field of downtown and into the mine under Jack’s house. Despite it being dark and quiet apart from the flickers of softly crackling torchlight, the Spark in front of him moved like the darkness was made for him, with light feet over the shadowed stone steps that went deeper and deeper into the earth…

And they didn’t talk—it just suddenly wasn’t important to fill the silence, the awkwardness having fled with the last bits of sunlight for the day.

Then suddenly they were in the cavern they called “Last Man Standing”—a remnant from an old game they’d played. Gavin led the way in a seemingly unimportant direction, moving randomly across the arena until…

His missing Hunters were gathered around what looked to be a large pile of dirt, which was weird because there wasn’t usually soil this far down where solid stone usually lived.

“Vav, you found a bear!” Ray cracked a smile as the two joined where the rest were waiting, and only when Michael suddenly became aware that Gavin had released his sleeve did he realize the Spark had been guiding him the entire trip here.

“Did you get my diamonds?” Geoff chimed in before anyone could speak up, which  Michael was thankful for because he felt sort of confused and wasn’t sure if he could’ve even come up with a comeback for Ray with how much his head was spinning. At least to Geoff’s question, there was a solid answer to give back.

“Uh, yeah. I put three in your house, three in Jack’s, and three in the vault as back-up. Plus a shit-ton of emeralds in your house, Rye,” he nodded to where the blonde was perched atop a ledge of stone and watching them calmly, and the older man grinned in return.

“Excellent.” He said in a smoothly, sinister way, and although Gavin went from looking at him to the rest of the Humans in a physical representation of the question as to what the hell the man wanted with a bunch of emeralds, no one asked anything else. Michael was impressed that Gavin had already learned not to ask too many questions when it came to their resident Mad King.

“And I got one too, Geoff! Look,” Gavin put the bucket of water on the ground and slipped out the gem Michael had just given up to show the leader eagerly, and Geoff flipped up his yellow visor to “examine” the jewel.

They all knew that Geoff had seen a thousand diamonds in his lifetime. He was a builder at heart and he used diamond tools to do most of it, and Michael was almost entirely sure the older man didn’t care like some people cared about the pretty rocks. They really were just that to him: pretty, albeit useful rocks.

But still, he said:

“Sweet dude, hold onto that.” The eldest Hunter approved with a smile that was like the embodiment of patting someone on the head—and not sarcastically or insultingly as was Geoff’s chosen method of speaking. And by the way Gavin’s posture straightened up, Michael was pretty sure that if he were a bird instead of a Creeper, he’d be positively preening at the positive attention.

It didn’t take long—seeing Jack’s wide grin, Ray’s smugly satisfied smirk, and Ryan’s knowing look at that exchange—to figure out exactly how Gavin fit into them as a group. Geoff did not _baby_ anyone, but this eager little Spark was firmly under his wing.

And Michael wasn’t even surprised. 

“Well are you going to hurry up and show us this thing or not? It’s bad enough you forgot the water,” Ray cut in, and Gavin jumped a little like he’d forgotten what he was doing and returned his diamond to its pocket, grabbing the bucket swiftly.

“Sorry! I just miscounted how many buckets-full I needed is all,” He defended himself lightly, obviously not fazed by the younger Hunter’s words, to which Michael was happy he’d started figuring out their humor and not taking it to heart. Gavin was almost to the hill of dirt before he seemed to remember something and spun on his heel, running back to the bear-man’s side and grabbing Michael’s sleeve again. “Micool! Come see what I just showed Geoff,” He pulled with a lot more force this time, but Michael barely even noticed, still caught up in how the Spark had said his name. It wasn’t just twisted now, it _had_ to be on purpose he thought (wondered).

He remembered how stiff he was on the ungraceful climb up the dirt, but he pushed through it and got to the top relatively easily despite Gavin incessant tugging at his sleeve.

He was distracted by his relief at being at the top and not having to spend any energy anymore, the he had to do a double-take when he realized there was already a bucket up here—a bucket of fucking _lava._

Gavin placed the water right next to it and made to grab the lava, when a hand was on his wrist, stopping him dead. It took a second, but Michael suddenly realized that the hand on the Spark’s wrist was _his._

Words failed him. “You can’t-!?”

“It’s ok Michael!” Gavin shook him off and grabbed the bucket, the Human’s stomach bottoming out as he did so, entirely sure Gavin was about to go up in flames.

But nothing happened. The Spark picked up the bucket as if nothing dangerous was in it, and slowly poured it into a hole that Michael had only half-noticed at the top of the hill compared to the lava. He watched carefully as the molten rock churned and the head got infinitely hotter, but Gavin didn’t seem outwardly affected.

Then he grabbed the water bucket and dumped it out over the lava a lot more recklessly. It steamed so violently that Michael had to shield his eyes with his arm and lean back from the violently hot steam, but Gavin’s coverings seemed to protect him just fine, to the point where he didn’t seem to flinch at all. When the fog cleared, Michael immediately looked down and saw solid obsidian glinting dully back at him. Which, made sense he supposed, water and lava made obsidian, but _how_ the _hell_ had Gavin…!?

“What did you—and that bucket—!?”

“It’s a Spark thing.” Geoff supplied, sounding incredibly amused at Michael’s flabbergasted expression.

Gavin just shrugged guiltily, though through the returned shade of his hood Michael could no longer see his eyes, he could _feel_ the pride and amusement coming off of him in waves.

He was at a loss of how to respond to that, except: “Woah.”

His heart skipped a beat when the Spark leaning over the hole across from him _giggled_ heartily at the reaction. Michael felt his face stretch in a wide, unrestrained grin.  “That’s going to make our prank _much_ easier.” He offered, watching Gavin perk up in interest at the mention.

“What prank?”

“What?” “Huh?” Both warrior and Spark chorused as one, immediately playing dumb at Jack’s demand. They looked at each other and immediately broke down in laughter, which became twice as hard at Jack’s annoyed shout of protest at whatever mischief they were planning.

Michael had never heard a Spark laugh before, but it was amazing he decided.

“Ok assholes, back on target,” Geoff interrupted them, kicking at the dirt mound in front of him. “Gav, what exactly does forming obsidian like this do again? You still haven’t said.”

The Spark jumped up eagerly and scrambled back down to him. “Patience, Geoffrey! Let’s clear the dirt first and I’ll show you,” He picked up one of the shovels that were dumped in a pile off to the side, the other three joining in. Michael just got down and let them work, his weariness kicking in again and noting they only had enough tools for the five of them since he’d been a surprise addition. As he watched, and was half-surprised and wholly pleased to see that Gavin had picked up Geoff’s technique of mining—fast, efficient, decisive—meaning his growing suspicions were true and Geoff was teaching the Spark to build. And by the looks of it, Gavin was a natural.

In almost no time at all, the dirt was cleared away, and it took Michael all of three seconds to recognize the familiar shape.

“A Nether portal?” He cocked an eyebrow.

“Without the, you know, _portal_ part,” Ray rolled his eyes, and Michael shot him an obvious look.

“But it _can_ be a portal,” Gavin insisted, and all Humans present stiffened in alarm—none more so than Geoff, who got this wildly hopeful look on his face.

“ _How_ the fuck do we do that!?” He demanded of the young Creeper, who reached into a pocket by his dark boots and pulled out a familiar looking tool.

Though they couldn’t see his face, they could _hear_ the grin in his voice as he spoke smugly, “You just need a spark.” He chuckled knowingly, clicking the flint and steel together and watching embers of flame burst to life and sputter out instantly. He walked over to the obsidian structure, and clicked the small fireworks against the inside of the ring—

-and in a burst of purple, misty light and a loud _whoosh_ that flooded sulfur smoke and that grimy scent of soulsand into their noses… a portal stood in front of them. Complete with the eerie, groaning, musical sound that all portals made.

“…”

“…”

"..."

“… holy _fuck.”_

“Now you don’t have to go so far,” Gavin chirped eagerly to Geoff, who was standing stock-still and staring in absolute shock at the portal in front of him. Numbly he reached out and, missing once, managed to clap the Spark beside him on the shoulder and pull the younger guy into a one-armed hug without looking away from the obsidian ring.

“That’s it, I’m totally keeping you.” He declared, still sounding a bit dazed but still full of his usual humor.

Michael suddenly didn’t feel tired anymore as the sound of Gavin’s peals of laughter echoed around the dark, monster riddled cave.


	8. Let the Games Begin

Gavin rolled over on his side, sighing a bit into the dark night.

Well, partially dark. The starlight streaming down from the clear windows of the little house Geoff had built them made it so it was no darker than regular night, not dark like a Tome or dark like a deep cave. Not to mention there were torches on the contraption the Hunters were going to play on come morning, and despite the distance it still made everything so… bright.

He sighed again and gave up on sleep, sitting up in the irrationally soft bed Geoff had built and glancing around the only half-dark room. When he was back at Geoff’s house, he could usually ignore the dim torchlight and curl under his coverings to ignore the half-ass darkness, but here it was no use: it was too bright, the bed was too soft.

Humans slept weirdly, he decided. He liked the fact they slept on soft beds because it _was_ more comfortable than the ground or stone, but he just wasn’t used to it, and now that he wasn’t healing from being left in a hole for a week, he had no weariness in his limbs in order to ignore it anymore. Also, he noted, they only sometimes paid attention to the sun cycle in deciding to sleep or not. That was familiar in a way, since often Sparks couldn’t even _see_ the sun in their Tome, but Gavin was fairly certain every other member of the mob paid strict attention to the sun cycle.

The Hunters didn’t even sleep every day, sometimes they just kept going for several days in a row though they did weary if they didn’t eat enough to sustain their energy. Michael in particular, who used a _lot_ of his energy defending Achievement City from the Bone people and Undead that wandered in.

He liked Michael more every day he knew him. Yes, he was loud and often violent and angry, but he was a lot more playful than Ray was. He was just _fun_ and not at all scary if he wasn’t against you, and since apparently he’d taken a liking to the Spark they’d adopted, Gavin only ever saw the happy parts of him these days. It seemed like they’d known each other their whole lives, considering how _easy_ it was to run through the forests or climb the trees side-by-side without any of that initial awkwardness, even though it’d only been slightly over two weeks since the Bear-man had returned from his diamond excursion.

And not only was he fun, but he was actually very child-like and _sweet_ in the right moments. He was rough around the edges, that was for sure, not to mention gruff and a very aggressive personality, but he wasn’t arrogant or mean about it. He followed Geoff around like a puppy and listened to his every word in obvious respect, and he hovered around Ray when they were away from the City like he was ready to spring into action should danger appear. He also, the first time he got up to do his job of protecting Achievement City, had paused on his way out and then ran back to Gavin’s side, asking if what he was doing was actually ok with him.

He’d looked really worried about it too, like he wasn’t sure if he could handle Gavin not approving of him taking out the mob that wandered into their home. It had softened the Spark’s heart a great deal, and lifted his spirits.

Now, unnecessary cruelness was a lot different than general defense. Gavin had no illusions that the Undead were somehow offended by being killed, or that they even _knew_ what an approaching sword would even mean. They were lifeless, dull, infected things that moves mainly because of twitching limbs rather than consciousness, and while one wasn’t that fast or that dangerous, a crowd of them very quickly could be. Sparks didn’t deal with them because they only went after Humans, and that is precisely what he told Michael in explaining that it was ok.

The Hunters _were_ Human, therefore the Undead _were_ threats to them. Protecting themselves was understandable.

The Bone People were another matter entirely. They may have been part of the mob, but they were angry _Human_ spirits inhabiting _Human_ remains that went after everything that moved. The rest of the mob, including Sparks, had to protect themselves against those creatures, and the fact they were entirely Human in origin meant that he as an outsider really couldn’t be the voice of reason concerning them. He left it up to Michael, Geoff, and the others to decide what to think about it.

They’d _all_ looked a little green around the gills to hear what the Bone People were, but they weren’t the sort to _let_ anything kill them just because they felt bad, so Michael had continued his job without too much of a problem, and no opposition from Gavin. So long as they weren’t cruel about it, he really didn’t care.

And he didn’t believe for a second Michael had it in him to be cruel—not in the slightest.    

He turned to his left and smiled to himself to see the man in question sleeping peacefully on his back, one arm curled under his pillow and the other resting serenely on his stomach. He looked way calmer in rest than he ever did when he was awake, despite the fact he’d passed out fully clothed and with his diamond sword still strapped to his side as if he’d need to use it at a second’s notice even in the middle of his dreams.

Human expressions were odd things to begin with, but Gavin didn’t think he’d ever get over seeing _sleeping_ Human expressions. There was just something beautiful and innocent, exposed and peaceful about it.

He glanced to his right, but Ray was on his stomach, face buried in the pillow and titled away from him and his arm flung up over his head, his other hand dangling off the edge of the bed limply and soft snores keeping a steady rhythm in the stillness. Beyond him was Ryan, who was on his back like Michael but had his hands folded across his stomach, then Jack who was on his side facing away and snoring much louder and less rhythmically than Ray, and then Geoff on the far side who had a spare pillow pinned over his head, probably to block Jack out.

He sighed once more, enjoying his new Human companions oblivious company.

“Can’t sleep?”

He almost jumped out of his skin at the deep voice that broke the quiet night, looking around frantically for a moment before realizing that Ryan’s eyes had opened. He hadn’t moved an inch, but his lips had quirked into a small smirk as he observed the restless Spark two beds over.

“No.” He said quietly. He still wasn’t used to talking to Ryan, despite how much time the six of them spent together these days. Alone (technically, since no one else was conscious) Gavin flailed at how to speak with him. “It’s ah… too bright.” He admitted.

Ryan hummed, his deep voice rolling a little. “It’s always something.” He agreed slowly. “I never sleep well, it seems.”

“You have to sleep though, or you won’t appear here if you die in the game tomorrow!” Gavin exclaimed in a whisper.

The Human chuckled a little. “I’m aware. I may get an hour or two eventually, which should suffice.”

“Is that really enough for a Human?”

“It is for me. Most days.” He said, a strange note coming into his voice. “I get a little weird if I don’t sleep at least a couple hours a week.”

Gavin made a face under his mask. “Ryan, you’re already really weird.” He blurted out before he could stop himself. It was just that, Michael and Ray and Geoff had _no_ filter and he just sort of forgot his after spending so long with them…

Luckily the blonde only chuckled gently again.

“There’s that too.” He smiled wryly, and closed his eyes once more as if to attempt to sleep again. Gavin almost copied him when he continued, “You’re not fully Spark, are you Gav?”

His heart stopped in his chest.

_How…_

Ah, it was Ryan. He was crazy smart, like Geoff had said—Gavin had _seen_ the complicated circuitry he’d come up with, seen the potions and the books and heard him speak for hours about all of it and he only ever understood half of it. Not only that, but he was curious, and ruthless about his curiosity. He liked to observe the world around him, he liked to take it in a learn more about it. Gavin didn’t know a lot about this particular Human, but he knew that much, and he knew Ryan wasn’t going to accept a lie.

And would lying really help him? Ryan would probably know it was a lie and probably not even Michael or Geoff could stop him if he wanted a real answer. Plus… Ryan could also be really interesting sometimes: he was the only one who was patient enough to listen to _all_ of his questions even though the other four Hunters got exasperated and dismissed his queries after a short amount of time. He was also almost as socially awkward as he himself was, although Gavin was sure he didn’t have the ‘separate species’ card to give him an excuse. Plus, despite not being so aggressive about it, Gavin was curious about a lot of the world too and he could clearly see where Ryan got his interest in the things he saw.

They shared a lot, despite being polar opposites, if that made sense.

So…

“No.” He breathed in defeat.

Unable to face the fact he’d just made that admission aloud, he lay down quickly and turned away from that side of the room entirely, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to block out the world.

But still, he heard Ryan’s response.

“You don’t have to be afraid of that. Even if that not ok with the world, you’re stronger because you’re different. Anyone who disagrees is too weak-minded to understand what power actually is.” Gavin felt chills race up his spine at those words.

What had Geoff said, all those weeks ago?

Ryan had been a King.

A Mad King.

“… also, I won’t tell anyone.”

Gavin blinked once and then sat up sharply, glancing over at the blonde intensely, but he hadn’t moved and he didn’t react, like that entire conversation hadn’t just happened.

That was… weird. He hadn’t sounded at all like himself right then, more like… like Michael when he was being sweet, or more like Ray when he was talking about his roses.

More like a friend.

But he shook himself off and collapsed back into his pillow in exasperation, trying to force himself into unconsciousness. The day he started thinking of Ryan as a friend was the day he knew he’d gone insane.

“Gav?” Michael sleepy voice broke him from his whirlwind of thoughts, and he opened his eyes to see the warrior rubbing a hand over his eyes and blinking sleepily into the darkness, probably roused by the Spark’s flustered movements.

“Go to sleep, Micool,” He cooed with a smile, watching in amusement at the Human obeyed and rested his head back down with a yawn. In seconds his breathing mellowed out again, and he was gone.

Gavin’s smile slipped away after a couple minutes, his thoughts picking up pace again. He spent the rest of the night fidgeting restlessly, and fighting his own mind. 


	9. Rumor Has It

“So ah… run that by me again.”

“Hm?” The merchant hummed, looking back up at the blonde who’d wandered through his little shop to pick up some supplies. He’d thought their transaction over with, but apparently not.

The kid was short, but he had some serious sass as he rolled his eyes impatiently. “What did you just say to that man who was just in here?” He clarified.

The merchant thought back over the polite conversation with a trader from one of the Silva villages but came up with nothing.

“Uh… we talked about the weather. Possible storm in a couple days, ya’know. And then about when he would be visiting again, probably not until next spring-”

“Not that part.” The kid cut him off, a twist to his lips. “Where did you say he was from again?”

“What? Where he’s from? He’s from Silva, no? One of the traders I believe.” He shrugged, not seeing the importance of this.

“ _Silva?_ **Silva** Silva? As in the Badlands?” The kid seemed entirely thrown by this, blinking pale blue eyes rapidly. “I had no idea there were villages out there.”

The older man gave him a curious look. “Oh sure, there are several at this point. Lots fled there in the wake of the old King’s death, ya’know. There was lots of unrest, people were afraid the of the new Queen—with good reason if ya ask me, considering a knight declaring themselves royalty is a bit sketchy by lots o’ people’s standards.” He frowned as the kid made an annoyed expression at that, but he didn’t interrupt so he brushed it off and continued. “I think most out there are refugees from Das Loch as well. With the disappearance of the Mad King those new crazies in charge are makin’ a mess of that awful war, so a bunch have fled for the hills so to speak.”

“But into the _Badlands?”_ The kid repeated incredulously. “How can anyone live out there? It’s _filled_ with Mob!”

“Aye, true enough.” The older man agreed, lifting a brow at him. “But that’s what their King is for, isn’t it? Him and those damn Hunters of his keep it all nice and safe for them, so I’ve heard. It’s still too wild out there for my tastes, but they're safe enough considering where they _could_ live, and far more free if the rumors are true. It’d be an attractive place to live if I wasn’t sure with my bad luck I’d been eaten by the Mob before I even made the trek out there.”

He ranted a little, trailing off when he realized the kid was just staring at him.

“What?”

“… did you say King?”

“Aye. King Ramsey, I think.” He paused when the kid didn’t seem to move a muscle and- was he even breathing? “Kid, are you alright?”

“You mean to tell me there is a _King_ and a supposed _kingdom_ out in _Silva_ and somehow the other five kingdoms had no idea!?” He was shouting now, and the merchant was kind of hoping another customer would walk in so he could politely get out of this conversation.

“Um… yes?”

“HOW!?”

“Kid, if you can’t cool it I’m going to have to ask you to leave. I don’t really know what to tell you if this is news to you.” He shrugged a bit helplessly.

“This is… this is… I’m really not sure what this is.” The short blonde started to babble, mostly to himself, looking highly concerned. He looked back at the merchant with a wide expression. “You said Hunters. What are the Hunters exactly?”

“Just a group of people that help fend off the Mob, I believe, like a royal court of sorts or maybe even knights. They live in a city damn near on the other side of the black forest, lord knows how far into Silva. I’ve never been, neither have the traders, the King and his Hunters mainly make the trek out to the villages they consider part of their kingdom. It’s all kept pretty secret though; I think everyone involved just prefers if the five kingdoms just leave Silva alone. Besides the odd trade here and there, no one from inside the Badlands wants anything to do with outsiders.”

“Well that makes sense, if they’re all refugees from… other… kingdoms…” he trailed off, going pale.

“Oi, kid! Are you-”

“Do you know how the old King died?” He interrupted, suddenly sounding desperate, and it kinda freaked the older man out.

“What?”

“The old king of Rabbia—do you know how he died?”

“He was killed by one of his own knights, wasn’t he? The one they call Mogar.”

“If Silva is made up of refugees, do you know if Mogar fled there as well?”

“What? Kid, that’s insane. If a knight as great as Mogar had any sense he’d steer clear of _all_ civilization. I’ve not heard any rumors he’d hiding out there and I’d be surprised as hell if he were stupid enough just be camped out there in one of the villages, out in the open and such.” He frowned deeply, the subject pressing a button inside of him. The kingdom had gone through hell because of that traitor knight, even if the rumors _did_ hint that maybe he did it to protect a friend. Even so, no friend is worth betraying an entire kingdom so horrifically. What was one life to that of thousands?

That wasn’t the answer the short blonde had been looking for it seemed, as his shoulders seemed to slump slightly.

“Right. You’re right. Never mind,” he brushed it off, his eyes flickering in a calculating way. “Do you know where exactly this city of the Silva King is?”

Suspicious, highly suspicious, but who was he to stop this youth from trekking out into dangerous country in search of a King that would probably just kill him for trespassing? Or, one of his Hunters would at the very least...

“Not entirely sure, but I’ve heard it’s somewhere on the southwest shore of the Dark Marshes, a day’s journey south of the Zise Jungle that boarders Das Loch. Please, I don’t want to know if you’re going to try and go there.” He sighed. This was easily the strangest conversation he’d ever had.

“Right. Anyway, thanks for all that. Have a nice day.” The kid nodded, grabbing his forgotten bag of supplies and headed for the door.

“You too,” The man replied wearily.

Outside the shop, the blonde’s eyes scanned frantically in the milling villagers and started heading south down the street. After a minute, he spotted his target and gave up on propriety by running to the taller, dark-haired man examining tomatoes in a grocery stand window.

“I’m not sure, are they supposed to squish like that?” He was wondering aloud to himself with one vegetable in each hand when the blonde appeared beside him.

“MILES.”

“ACK!” The man tossed the red vegetables over his head in shock and then blinked down at his travel companion wildly. One quick glance at the angry woman glaring at him for tossing her wares and he amended. “I can pay for that,” He said quickly by way of apology before his friend grabbed his arm urgently and began dragging him away. He quickly pulled out a couple silver pieces and tossed them at her before he got out of range and then proceeded to struggle to stand as the shorter blonde man-handled him down the street.

“Kerry! What going on!?” He squeaked as he nearly tripped on a stone and face planted into the walkway.

Kerry however, was on a mission and supported him without missing a beat in his fast-paced stride.

“We have to get back to the Citadel, like _yesterday._ Lindsay’s going to want to hear about this.”


	10. Kung Fu and Craters

Jack paused in his shifting of boxes when a small giggle reached his ears from the back of the room. He straightened, lifting one eyebrow and began pushing his way through the mess of crates and boxes stuffed around the Achievement City storage house. He managed to lean the upper half of his body around the corner and catch sight of a mass of green nearly hidden amongst the boxes, holding up a picture frame and giggling to itself.

“Having fun there?” He offered, causing Gavin to jump a little before turning the dark shade under his hood in the bearded man’s direction. He felt rather than saw the wild grin shot his way as he turned the frame to show him the picture.

“What the hell is this, then?”

Jack titled his head at the image. “Ah… a three headed dog? Your guess is as good as any.” He chuckled. “So were you planning on helping me at all, or…?”

“Nah, I’m fine right here.” The Spark brushed him off happily, sorting through several other paintings that had been shoved in the back of the house and evidentially forgotten about. Being small and quick and lean—way more than any of them save maybe Ray if the younger man was at all motivated to actually _move_ with any amount of haste— Gavin had climbed over the mess in here and wedged himself at the back of the storage house to sort through things as he pleased while Jack and Michael had been slowly clearing it out, moving most of the crap into the vault Geoff had tunneled under his “house”. They’d been meaning to do it for awhile now anyway, but recent developments had changed the situation to make it a bit more important.

Mainly, their new addition to the city.

Jack scoffed once. “Asshole.” He muttered under his breath, still managing to sound fond despite true annoyance.

“ _Jack,”_ Gavin gasped as if he’d realized something, standing up and offering him a larger painting with what looked like a person doing martial arts on it. “What is this!?”

“Ah… what do you mean?”

“They’re Humans, but where are they doing? They’re kicking each other?”

“It’s called Kung-Fu I think. It’s a fighting style.”

“Does Michael know how to do it?”

“I’m… almost positive he doesn’t.”

“Does anyone? Geoff or Ray—nah, Ray wouldn’t. Or you know maybe he would, it’s just like him to know something cool like that and just not mention it!”

Jack found himself chuckling, almost against his will. “I pretty sure neither of them know it either. Maybe Ryan would—he’s one creepy-smart motherfucker, I wouldn’t put it past him to know some sort of martial arts. If for no other reason than just because we wouldn’t expect it.” He shrugged, blinking a little when the Spark made a dramatic noise and then hopped over several boxes like they weren’t even there.

“I’m going to go see!” He declared, in his haste knocking over three of the boxes Jack had just collected, and then he was out the door in a flash.

“Argh! Asshole…” Jack muttered again as he bent to pick the boxes up.

Still, he found himself laughing quietly over his enthusiasm. Gavin just had that way about him: you could easily love him to death and be annoyed as fuck with him simultaneously.

He was the reason they were here in the first place, clearing this old storage house out. It had happened several days ago when they’d all come back from one of their games, exhausted off their feet but still amped up from the adrenalin of play—especially Geoff seeing as he’d been the winner this time around. It wasn’t so weird for them to share a meal together before they turned in for a day or two of rest after their ordeal, and they’d all settled in Geoff house (since it wasn’t lacking in room) to eat their fill and let Gavin do his play-by-play of their game.

They’d all learned very quickly that the Spark had an incredible memory for the things he saw and could easily recount their games for every split second he saw them play it—and what was more was that he got just as amped about how cool it all was as Geoff did. He’d only just started participating in some activities, like the scavenger hunts and the less-dangerous games, but if there was a chance at all the Spark would get killed during one of their events then Geoff ordered him to sit out and be their “recorder” so to speak.

They would all come back if a game killed them, but Gavin wouldn’t. It made Geoff and Michael visibly nervous, but Jack and Ray were equally as concerned, they just hid it better. Ryan was a bit of a mystery (as usual) but recent events proved that he might care a little more than he showed, when in the middle of this past recounting of their games, Gavin had suddenly fallen asleep. Mid-sentence even.

Michael had flipped, but Ryan had simply scooped the Spark off from where he’d passed out leaning against Geoff’s side to deposit him on the bed further into the monolith that was unofficially/officially deemed to be his. Upon several questions, Ryan had just brushed them all off and reassured them that the kid wasn’t sick, just exhausted.

It was hard to tell because he kept up a constant stream of enthusiasm and energy—especially when he was running off with Michael— and his coverings made it impossible to get a look at him to just _see_ how tired he was… and by Ryan’s account, he was _really_ tired. The ex-King had an insomnia problem himself and relayed how for the past several weeks, both he _and_ Gavin had been roaming the night together—not really in each other’s company, but they were both awake and aware of each other as they wandered about doing their nightly activities to past the time until morning. He said Gavin mostly hung out under Ray’s rose bushes, or wandered through the trees that lined the city or tried to make sand structures out of wet sand on the beach—just doing his own thing like Ryan himself did, quietly reading his books or working on some redstone circuitry until he either finally got an hour of sleep or dawn arrived, whichever came first.

The problem was that Ryan had been dealing with sleeplessness for years. Gavin’s insomnia seemed to be a new trait that his body wasn’t adapting to.

“It’s the brightness,” The old King had said simply when Geoff had nearly torn his hair out trying to figure out what was wrong. “Think about it: Sparks live in darkness, that’s what he’s been telling us from the beginning. With the moon and stars out at night, and the torchlight in here, nothing can compete with the pitch blackness of an underground cave. It’s no wonder he can’t sleep.”

The next day, when Gavin had finally shaken himself awake, Geoff had broached the topic of maybe having him move into the storage house if they cleared it out. They could even brick-in the windows, if that would make it more like home to him.

Without thinking Gavin had jumped at the idea, proving to them all how much he really needed the little adaption.

It also proved to Jack that Ryan might not be as cold-hearted as they all thought most days. Despite how matter-of-factly he’d said it, how unconcerned he was when Gavin had collapsed (which had pissed Michael off more than a little, although he kept quiet about it), and how he’d known Gavin wasn’t sleeping and yet never said anything… _still_ … Ryan had been watching him.

That alone was neither good nor bad—Ryan was a paradox inside of a conundrum stuck atop a pickle, and him observing _anything_ wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Just look at how Edgar had ended up for evidence of that. Ryan had his own reasons and his own logic that couldn’t really be explained, but still… he knew immediately what was wrong with the Spark when he’d collapsed, and he’d known how to fix it just as quickly. It didn’t say a lot, but it said _something._

Despite how comforting that was, Jack was still a bit concerned at why Gavin hadn’t said anything though. Everyone here _knew_ he wasn’t Human, he was an entirely different species so _fuck yeah_ some things were going to be different when it came to him and _yeah,_ some exceptions or special circumstances needed to be created to allow for that. Despite being human-like under those coverings (from Michael and Geoff’s observations) he _wasn’t_ Human, and didn’t Gavin know by now he didn’t have to hide from that? It wasn’t even something he _could_ hide, it just… _was._ It was a fact of nature, like how Michael had red hair and Ray had darker skin—it wasn’t something you could change or overcome or ignore. It wasn’t something he should _want_ to overcome either.

So why hadn’t he said anything? It wasn’t like the talkative ball of energy to hide things so arbitrarily, especially when it was causing him direct distress.

“-ack…? Earth to Jack!”

The bearded man jumped a little as he was ripped from his thoughts and mindless motions of packing up the small house, turning to see Geoff in the doorway.

“What?” He blinked, and his friend rolled his eyes, evidentially not concerned.

“I asked what you said to Gavin. He’s being a menace.” He repeated himself, and Jack frowned.

“Ah… I can’t really think of anything.”

“Something about Kung-fu? I highly doubt Sparks just generally know what Kung-fu is, so I assume you told him.”

“Well, yeah, he did ask.” Jack leaned back a little, suddenly wary when he realized there was a lot of ruckus going on outside that he hadn’t been paying attention to (since a lot of ruckus was the normal state of Achievement City on any given day, and he tended to just tune it all out). “…why?”

Geoff just shook his head and nodded back out the door. Jack knew he was probably going to regret this, but he shuffled through the boxes to look out the nearest window as well, and was pretty darn startled at the sight that met him.

Somehow the back of Gavin’s hood had been hooked to a rock that jutted out from over Ryan’s doorway, his feet kicking wildly several feet in the air and his squawks clearly audible even from here. Ryan himself was standing on the ground below him, hands on his hips in obvious disapproval as he glared up at the Spark. Michael was on his knees in the middle of the logo, arms curled around his stomach as he howled in uncontrollable laughter, and Ray was walking up behind Ryan to lean down and pick up what Jack recognized as the Kung-fu painting Gavin had just ran out of here with.

Ryan turned to Ray and nodded once at whatever he said, picking the painting out of his hands and walking forward to place it front and center on his house, causing Michael’s howls to double in volume and Ray to start laughing as well. Jack heard Gavin complain loudly before the ex-King pointedly ignored him and retreated back into his house—his slamming door echoing out across the city square, and abandoning Gavin still stuck above him and the Sparks’ two friends still cracking up until they were in tears as Gavin shouted to Michael to help him get down.

“Kids,” Geoff joked sarcastically with an amused/weary chuckle shot out in their direction.

“I don’t want to know,” Jack deadpanned, fighting off an eye-roll valiantly.

Geoff snorted, shifting his posture. “Well, I’m off. I have a new build idea and I want to scope out the area, maybe clear a little this afternoon.” He announced, drawing attention to the pickaxe he had hoisted over his shoulder.

Jack nodded once, “Take Gav with you. I mean, he’d being _so_ much help around here, but I guess we can spare him…” He trailed off dramatically as his old friend chuckled.

“Right,” The King smirked, and turned back out the door, whistling sharply. Michael and Ray looked up from where they’d been trying to unhook Gavin’s hood from atop little dirt mounds, causing their grips to slip and the Spark to go crashing to the ground. All three Humans grimaced.

“Oops,” Ray chuckled guiltily.

“ _Ow…”_ Gavin complained, Michael hopping down from their make-shift dirt stools and heaved the Spark back to his feet.

“Eh, you’re fine!” He said brightly, and Gavin turned and shot him a look that none could see from under his hood but pretty much correctly interpreted anyway.

“Ryan’s a lunatic!” He cried out, and Michael shrugged helplessly.

“You already knew that, dumbass. Don’t piss him off next time!”

“I didn’t do anything!”

“Bullshit,” Ray chimed in with a deadpan, hopping off his dirt and brushing Gavin’s shoulder off pointedly. “You _love_ to provoke him, and don’t deny it.”

“But he-!”

“That’s what he does!” Michael was shouting/laughing again in that odd mix of anger and amusement only he could pull off. “You poke at things and he sets it all on fire!”

“There’s no need for that!”

“ _Bullshit,”_ A new voice joined in, and they all turned to see Ryan back out of his door, joining in the argument since he could obviously hear it all from inside his little hut.

“Aw shit,” Geoff sighed, realizing that once Ryan actually got involved in the chaos it wouldn’t stop. Ray seemed to realize this too as he backed off a little to stand by the King’s side and just observe the situation carefully.

Gavin let out a squeak and jumped behind the red head beside him. “Michael! Protect me!”

“Fuck no!” The warrior said immediately, jumping back and shoving the Spark mercilessly towards his doom as Ryan crossed him arms in a huff. “You got yourself into this one, boi!”

Gavin shifted a little nervously as he stood up and faced the pissy ex-King in front of him, and Ryan narrowed his gaze.

“Now what is all that, ‘ _there is no need’_ crap? You’re the one who pisses people off for fun! I’d think you of everyone would understand the damn _need,_ huh?”

“Just for a cheeky laugh! It’s funny!” Gavin defended himself, standing up a little straighter.

“Well Michael and Ray sure thought it was funny when you were stuck to my roof, weren’t they?” Ryan shot back.

The Spark seemed to wilt, realizing that point, before he got back up. “Yeah but you do it all the time! Like when Ray made fun of you and you pushed him off Geoff’s house, or when you set the court on fire during Lava Wall!”

“I knew Ray would be fine, and the court was already on fire.”

“From _one_ flaming arrow—you burned the whole thing down!”

“It was already headed in that direction anyway; I was just helping it along!”

“It was not! It would’ve been just fine!”

“Yeah, but it wouldn’t have been as _funny_ , would it?”

Gavin flailed his arms like he just didn’t know what to do anymore. “Well what about when you locked me up for real during Monopoly?”

“That was _especially_ funny. And completely besides the point.”

“Is not! It’s all about how you break things when there’s no need!”

“Bullshit. It’s always funny!”

“Destruction isn’t funny!”

“Destruction is _hilarious._ ”

“Enough!” Geoff finally stepped in, grabbing Gavin by the back of his hook and pulling him away from Ryan before the Mad King actually took a swing. He wasn’t really known for being violent like Michael was, but given the opportunity to take the chaos-level up to a maximum, Ryan never let the chance slide. Punching Gavin would undoubtedly get Michael involved to help him, which would drag Ray in to try and stop it (and/or slyly help, it was hard to tell), which would catch Jack’s attention in order to pull Ray out of harm’s way, who would then demand Geoff get involved to help him reign in the mayhem, something would catch fire, and one of them would probably end up re-spawning in their beds with Ryan off to a corner laughing his head off and leaving a lot of bruised egos in his wake.

Normally that’d just be a good laugh, but Geoff actually had shit to do today.

“Come on dickhead, you’re with me.” He placed a pickaxe in the Spark’s hands, and just like that his argument was forgotten as he nearly jumped into the air in excitement.

“Are we building? Where are we going? What’s the game?”

Ryan huffed, rolling his eyes and turning back to his house now that he’s been forgotten as Geoff chuckled lightly at Gavin’s eagerness. “I’ll tell you on the way. Stop bickering and we’ll get going.” He headed towards the forest, a Spark hot on his heels and then racing ahead towards the trees with the remaining lads snickering behind them at Gavin’s antics.

They walked for a little ways in silence as Gavin wandered and raced through the trees happily, before Geoff sighed.

“I don’t know why you pick fights with Ryan like that.”

The Spark paused in the running, leaning around a tree to give the Human a hooded look. “Well he argues back, doesn’t he?”

Geoff frowned. “And I don’t?”

“Not like Ryan does, no. You and Michael and the others just call me an idiot, but Ryan tries to _reason_. Even when my questions are just pretend!”

“Hypothetical.” Geoff corrected absently, mulling that over.

“Right, hypothetical.” Gavin agreed happily. He loved asking strange questions like that, just for pretend, but had never known there was a word for it until Ray had mentioned it in passing about a week ago. “I mean that’s not the point of pretend questions, but Ryan does it anyway. No matter what I do he always tries to reason through it, but sometimes there just isn’t a reason! And he’s one to talk— he never does anything by any sort of reason!”

“Well… his reason is chaos.” Geoff offered half-heartedly. “Your reason is to have fun. I guess the two just don’t mix well.”

“Is arguing bad though? I argue with Michael all the time and we’re still friends! I don’t think I’m friends with Ryan, but I don’t think arguing with him is bad either, right?”

The Human was silent for a moment, trying to figure that one out. Being friends with someone like Ryan was… difficult. For one thing, they just didn’t _understand_ the guy, and in a lot of ways he was still a stranger. Still, he was dependable and helpful, and he _did_ hold some allegiance to this tiny kingdom of theirs, so…

“I can’t say.” He decided. “However, you arguing with him is more than anyone else interacts with him besides when the Gents work together in a game. I’d even venture to guess you know more about him at this point than we do from fighting with him.”

Gavin made a startled sound and shook his head as if he didn’t want to be the one to know the Mad King that well.

“How can a Human be like that? Isn’t he friendly with _anyone_!?”

Geoff chuckled a little. “Maybe trying to reason with you _is_ his way of being friendly.”

“But—wait what!?”

Now the King laughed full-out. “Humans have a lot of ways of being a lot of different things. Like how I insult you to show how I care, and Michel tackles you to show he was worried about you. This species of ours is really good at doing one thing and meaning the exact opposite.”

The fell into a silence as they walked, Gavin seeming to be mulling that over so intensely, Geoff could almost smell the smoke from the grinding gears in his brain. After a while he muttered something under his breath that the Human couldn’t really hear, but he figured it was something along the lines of “ _Strange Humans”._

Then, Gavin broke the silence all of a sudden.

“Geoff, what’s that?”

The Hunter turned his head, entirely ready to give an answer like always. Gavin’s curiosity had grown exponentially over the past two months as he questioned literally everything about Humans and about the Hunters’ lives in general, but thankfully his questions were getting more complex—like  _“Why do Humans get tattoos?”_ or “ _Why is Jack and Michael’s hair red?”_ , generally things that required a little bit of thought on the Humans’ part since they apparently had just taken a lot of this stuff on faith. Thankfully he wasn’t still asking what the different tools they used were or what the different kinds of stone were. His basic knowledge of Human culture was almost complete at this point, so the “ _What’s that!?”_  questions were few and far between these days (the Kung Fu incident being an odd outlier—they didn’t encounter things like that every day, so it was understandable).

Now, Gavin’s cluelessness was almost nostalgic, since Geoff knew that he was almost out of days where Gavin was going to be nipping at his heels asking a million and one questions about stupid shit.

But then, he caught sight of what the Spark was looking at, and his heart thudded to a harsh halt.

“You built that, right?” Gavin said excitedly, oblivious to the suddenly horrified look on his companion’s face, and not seeing Geoff’s panicked attempt to grab him by the back of his coverings as he took off at a sprint towards the strange structure half hidden in the forest to their right. Geoff’s fingers missed him by inches, and despite breaking out in a run too, he wasn’t fast enough to catch up with the quick little Spark.

“Wait-Gav don’t-!” He couldn’t get the words out fast enough over his sprint as Gavin approached the large dirt wall.

“Is it dangerous? What’s it for? What kind of game is this?” He wondered wildly, clambering up the piles of dirt. It was so destroyed at this point, it was a wonder he’d even spotted the ragged and burnt wood buildings on either end of the field. Or… crater really.

“Gavin, you have to fucking listen to me first, don’t-!” But it was too late, Gavin was atop the remnants of a glass wall, looking over a cratered, patched up creation that had once been a perfect replica of a soccer field. He seemed confused as he tried to figure out what he was seeing, his head tilting under his hood. Geoff, in a desperate attempt to stop him from working it out before he could explain, leapt up the last piles of dirt and nearly toppled right off of the broken wall before he gabbed Gavin’s arm and yanked himself back, using his own body to block his view of the field and forcefully hold the Spark in front of him.

“Geoffrey!” Gavin complained, wiggling in his grip and trying to lean around him, but the Human just tightened his grip on the Spark’s arms until Gavin squeaked in alarm.

“Gavin, you have to… to  _listen_  to me for a moment.” He panted slightly, now that he was here completely drawing a blank at how to go about this. How was he supposed to stand here, face to face with this… kid? This young _creature_  in front of him and explain… how they’d….

“Geoff? Geoffrey, you’re just staring!” Gavin complained, fidgeting against his grip but not really getting that far under the Hunters’ strength. “I’m  _am_  listening, right? What is it? What is this game? It’s all ruined! Is it—what’s wrong Geoff? Are you ok? You look weird.”

Pale, Geoff was fairly certain was the word Gavin was looking for. He knew Humans had pallor that meant something, he just didn’t know for certain what all the colors meant just yet. Right now, his paleness meant fear, and horror, and a little bit of nausea.

He took a steadying breath.

“Gavin… you know we’re not perfect beings. Humans in general just  _suck_. The Hunters weren’t friendly to the Mob before we met you, remember?” The Spark’s wiggling stilled at those words, and Geoff felt him become stiff.  _God,_  he’d give anything to be able to see his face right now, just to know how he was taking this, but his hood’s shadows gave nothing away. He grit his teeth. “ _You_  changed us for the better, don’t forget that. But… it doesn’t change the fact that we weren’t… that we were just plain assholes before that. Once upon a time the fact of the matter is that we weren’t good people to the Mob.” His stomach turned. “Especially not to… Sparks.”

They stood there like that for what felt like an eternity to Geoff, but it couldn’t have been more than two minutes.

But when Gavin finally moved, it was to curl in on himself a little, as if shrinking away from the Human holding him still, and Geoff immediately dropped his hands as if he’d been burned.

“Gavin…”

The Spark seemed to shake his head silently, and sunk to his knees on the dirt below him, wrapping his arms around himself tightly.

“Gavin please say something!” Geoff all but begged, kneeling in front of him too, not touching him out of fear but trying to get his face visible to the Spark, although through the coverings it was impossible to tell if the Spark had just closed his eyes to the world or not. It seemed like he had, like he was about to block everything out—

But then…

“What was the game called?”

Geoff felt this heart pound loudly in his ears. He’d never thought he’d  _hate_  himself this much for having built something. He remembered once being so excited about this, before the game had started… he remember having  _fun_  playing it, feeling satisfied when it was over….

“Gav, you don’t really-”

“Please Geoff?” He asked weakly, and the Human felt his heart strings strain.

“…Creeper Soccer.” He admitted, running a hand over his face wearily. “And  _god_  Gav… I’m so sorry. I’m so,  _so_  sorry.”

This was… about as bad as it could get. He had never imagined he’d end up here, with a Spark imbedded in his heart and his world entirely changed… knowing he’d been as bad as any monster he’d ever encountered in the eyes of someone he now cared about…

He wanted to get past this so badly, but really… did he even deserve for be forgiven? It’s not like he’d had any qualms about doing it in the first place—he had played the game and never looked back until this very moment. What good was regret when it was months— _years—_ late?

Gavin surprised him though.

“…I know that.” The Spark said, and it surprised the Hunter immensely. He really hadn’t thought he’d have his head on so straight after seeing this… this  _carnage_. “I know you’re not like that anymore. I know the Sparks who lit up here are probably ok now.” He said so softly that Geoff had to struggle to hear him through his thick scarf.

“Does… that mean you don’t hate us?”

Gavin finally looked up, although his unseen expression echoed something… hollow.

“…no. I don’t hate you.” He admitted, sounding exhausted all of a sudden. It really didn’t suit the typically vibrating ball of energy. “I just… I just…”  He trailed off, not seeming to know the answer himself.

The King shook his head sharply. What a complete fucking mess this was.

“I think we should get out of here. Let’s go back to the city and just… take it slow for a while. We can do this another day.” He tried to urge him, tempted to pull him to his feet but still entirely unwilling to touch him. He wasn’t sure his heart could handle it if Gavin pulled away again.

As it was, he felt like the wind had been knocked out of him when the Spark shook his head in disagreement vehemently.

“No, I just… you can go. I want to wait out here for a bit.”

Wait out here? By the craters? For how long? That probably wasn’t healthy. Was he avoiding them? He’d have every right to, but… but what if he stayed out here and never wanted to come back? He had every right to do that too, but-!

Geoff felt a surge of panic settle inside of him.

“Gavin…  _please_  come home again. You’ll have a house waiting for you and everything, don’t… please don’t…”

“It’s ok Geoff.” He assured him, his voice alarmingly blank.

It didn’t comfort him at all.

“You have to promise me you’ll come back otherwise I’m not fucking leaving you out here by yourself!”

Gavin seemed to shrink in on himself a little more at the shout, and Geoff instantly felt another surge of guilt. It was like they were right back where they started: holding him here as a prisoner rather than him wanting to be here as their friend.

“Or… at least promise to come say hello. Just once, when you’re back.” He hedged. His heart ached in stress, the unspoken fear that it wouldn’t really be a hello he was spared, but a goodbye.

The Spark paused a moment and then nodded slowly. “I’ll come say goodnight, Geoff. Don’t worry.” He allowed, and that was all the Human recognized he was gonna get.

He swallowed what must’ve been a golf ball in his throat before turning and climbing back down the dirt wall, knowing that if he tried to say something else he wasn’t going to stop talking and probably just say something to make this mess even worse.

His feet had just barely hit the path they’d been walking down again before he was sprinting back to the city as fast as his feet could carry him.


	11. I Dream of Wolves

_Ray opened his eyes, and he was standing in a forest._

_It might’ve been a familiar forest—who the hell could tell, since every damn tree looked the same as every other damn tree he’d passed. Eventually he had to run into someone, **anyone** ; the forest couldn’t go on forever. Sooner or later he’d stumble into another village, or a kingdom, or at least a hermit’s hut…._

_In hindsight he probably shouldn’t have left the ruins of his village. Eventually the neighbors would’ve realized they hadn’t heard from anyone from that small mountainside town in a while and come looking. They might’ve even had a trader in town and would’ve gotten worried when they never came home. Surely someone had seen the smoke even, and gotten concerned enough to come investigate._

_At least back there the smoldering ruins could’ve provided some sort of shelter, and if he’d been up for it he could’ve searched through the ashes for something to take with him, to help him survive._

_But he couldn’t._

_Walking through the grey and wet wasteland as it’d started to rain, steaming up the embers still clinging to the devastated village, turning the ash into stone-grey mud that caked and clung and made it hard to breathe through the steam and the smoke… well, doing it once had been enough. Screaming for his parents from the outside of a crumbling house and getting no answer, burning his hands trying to pry a still-hot wooden beam from the wreckage and having the entire thing burst out into a scalding ash cloud, watching the neighbor’s house collapse before his very eyes in reaction… he had just turned around and started walking._

_He walked through what was easily the most horrific scene he’d ever witnessed, like he was still sleeping and this world he was in was just a nightmare. He’d walked down that very street just yesterday and everything had been fine… children playing, men and women calling to each other over trivial things, laundry handing on the lines, merchants yelling off their wares of cloth and bread and fruit…_

_And now it was quiet. Entirely, perfectly, unnaturally quiet like even the birds were holding their breath and the wind was afraid to so much as whisper. And everything that once had color was covered in a thick layer of suffocating ash. The smell of smoke, of dampness, of… of charred **meat…**  it made him want to gag. But he was too shocked to even blink._

_Everything was… it all just… blurred together into a horrible, miserable nothingness…_

_Except… except for small blossoms of red. They lit up his memory like fire, like the pinpricks of starlight against an oppressively black sky. In amongst the horror, still they had their color, and still they smelled sweet._

_Somehow his walk became a run, and he was ripping through the trees until the grey slipped away and everything was green again. He ran and he ran and he ran until he lost momentum and then he just kept walking because… what else was he supposed to do? He couldn’t think, he couldn’t breathe—and honestly he didn’t want to do either. He could still smell the putrid scent of death, of decay, of smoldering agony._

_Days later it still didn’t fade. Even when the world was green, the grey didn’t fade. Even though it’d rained and rained and finally it even started snowing clean, freshly white flakes, he could still smell the horror. Even when he started to tremble from hunger he couldn’t bear the thought of food because he knew it’d just come back up. Even though the snow piled higher and his skin turned paler than it should be, and even started to go blue, he still felt the terrible heat over his flesh, burning him up from the inside out and searing his arms and palms until they bleed freely from their burning blisters._

_Drops of red against a pristine white landscape, like a trail that’d lead him back to hell if he dared to turn around._

_He didn’t know what made him stop, but finally his feet came to a halt. The forest should’ve been beautiful: emerald green beneath untouched white fluff… he vaguely remembered loving to watch the snow fall, watching it pile into a perfect blanket across the fields and the mountain and over the trees, getting caught in your hair and on your tongue…_

_He didn’t feel anything now, looking at it blankly. It wasn’t even cold, it was all just… numb._

_And that was when the growling started._

_His head snapped to the side almost as if it had a will of its own, fight or flight taking over where his energy had failed a long time ago. Red eyes peered out between the shadows of the snow-laden trees, again that spark of color standing out against his newly monochrome world. He hadn’t realized it was turning dark—or maybe it was just the thick snow clouds above that blocked out the sun so well—but in any case he’d stopped paying attention to the day and night at least… well, at least several days ago. He couldn’t tell you how long it’d been since he fled his vanished village._

_A large bark had him jumping, seeing a large white wolf slip its way out of the shadows and step closer, his fangs bared viciously and hungry saliva dripping from its maw._

_Without thinking he turned on his heel and ran the opposite direction. It didn’t matter where the direction led him, it just had to be away from here. Paws in the snow made breathy crunching sounds as they gave chase. One, two, three… four? It was hard to tell how many, but it had to be a pack. As their howls echoed together and tore right through his delirious mind painfully. Their growls increased and drifted in volume, like waves on the shore as they got close and then gave him some leeway, running beside him and snapping at his heels or even ahead of him and making him turn, causing him to veer off to the left or right in panic to avoid them. He could feel at least two bearing down directly behind him, and it made his heart race faster than his pounding feet._

_Were they toying with him? Why didn’t they just pounce!?_

_Not that he wanted to be eaten by wolves, but realistically he was going to die out here anyway. Was faster or slower more preferable? Being eaten or slowly being frozen…_

_The decision seemed to be taken out of his hands when finally he felt teeth sink into the back of his calf, and he cried out in pain instinctively, kicking out and flailing wildly. He slipped in the snow and went headfirst through a pair of trees that apparently guarded a gentle hill down into a clearing. One would think the foot of snow would cushion him some, but it didn’t really feel like it as he made the long, painful tumble down the incline, canine paws crunching around him like a stampede to race him down to the bottom._

_When he finally rolled to a stop he was on his feet immediately—but his body was extremely against this idea. His felt his calf twinge in pain from where a wolf had gotten its jaw in him, and he was just too exhausted to keep upright anymore._

_He knees hit the ground, and he let out a small sob of… grief? Fear? Weariness? Even he didn’t know, and honestly he didn’t give a fuck at the moment, as the wolves seemed to circle, their grey-white fur blending in with the blizzard. They circled like sharks, their growls low and calm, and… and…_

_And were there people here?_

_Ray’s eyes slipped past the beasts to see two figures in the snow, thick capes draped around their forms, lined with fur and masking them quite well. Neither seemed to notice him over the ruckus of the wolves—and more to the point, neither seemed to give a shit about the sudden appearance of the wolves either. One of them—the larger one with a fearsome looking battle axe strapped to his back—lifted a parchment that looked an awful lot like a map, muffled voices making him think that maybe they were in the middle of an argument. As Ray watched, the slightly shorter one ripped the paper from his hands and brandished it. Whatever he’d said was lost to the snow and the growls, but it obviously didn’t please his partner judging by how he turned away defensively, like he didn’t want to hear his companion’s comments._

_But that meant he turned to look at the wolves—and directly at Ray._

_His defensive posture slipped away into something of alarm, although it was hard to tell behind the large, Viking-esque beard he had. He looked terrifying, with the axe and his sheer_ size _and a large metal piercing through his nose. He was a true warrior, the kind Ray’s parents used to tell him about that would fight the hardest battles of a kingdom, the kind of war hero they wrote songs and legends about._

_His voice was oddly gentle though, even concerned almost, when Ray heard it echo out across the snow._

_“Ah… Joel?”_

_The warrior’s companion turned, an irritated expression on his face. He didn’t look as outwardly terrifying as the tall red-bearded warrior standing next to him, but he had a… darker air about him. His hair was pitched, his eyes narrowed and unhappy. He was a lot taller than Ray at least, but still shorter than his partner. Still, he looked equal to him in danger, although… Ray couldn’t really put a finger on_ why _his instincts told him so._

_The dark haired man lifted one brow, his unhappy expression shifting into something closer to curiosity. He whistled sharply, and the wolves immediately dispersed from their circles around Ray… and to his side._

_Ray couldn’t wrap his mind around what he was seeing as at least six wolves circled around the man his friend called Joel, two sitting on their haunches behind him as if waiting for orders while another brushed up against his legs as if searching for attention. The other three jumped playfully beside him, one snapping at the other and the other responding with a swat of his paw before they rolled over in the snow, yipping happily._

_“Good doggies.” He heard the dark man said in a pleased way._

_Ray could only stare a moment longer before his body gave out. It was too much, it was all just too much._

_The blackness took him long before he landed face-first in the soft, untouched snow._


	12. Moonlight Truths

Ryan made a face at the wall of his little dirt house and silently closed the book he’d been trying to read.

Michael was still shouting. It’s been _hours_ already, couldn’t he give it a rest?

He wondered vaguely how it was physically possible for someone to be that _loud_ , to be heard so clearly through the wall of stone that connected this house and the monolith beside it, but he brushed it off. The ex-knight was just worried about his missing Spark and taking it out on Geoff. Who, in turn, was taking it out right back on him.

Both had already re-spawned once, Michael twice.

He groaned when another round of shouting made it clear he wasn’t going to get any peace tonight—not at least until Gavin came back. The fact night had fallen several hours ago only made everyone more on edge and anxious, but where Jack and Ray had called it a night in hopes of a better tomorrow, Geoff and Michael were going to run through their emotions with as much volume as they could until they could fix the problem or simply burnt out.

He sighed in an annoyed manner as he got up. Grabbing his shoulder bag of on-hand potions and hooking a spare sword to his belt on his way out the door, he figured he’s never get a moment of rest unless he did something. Honestly, he didn’t know what the big fuss was. Despite being upset, of course Gavin was going to return eventually. Where else would he _go?_

Shaking his thoughts clear he exited his house and took a moment to remember which direction Creeper Soccer was, when something caught his eye—something amiss in the normal night-time landscape of Achievement City. It wasn’t something he’d never seen before, but it was certainly a rarity.

He thought it over, then shrugged. It wasn’t like he didn’t have the time, after all. He changed directions and aimed for Ray’s house instead, approaching the immaculate rose bushes on light feet. Once there, he simply paused and observed for a moment.

Then:

“…couldn’t sleep?”

The man tending to the flowers distractedly in the dark night nearly jumped out of his skin with a startled yelp, whipping around and brandishing a pair of shears in his hands wildly. When he realized who’d snuck up on him, he scowled.

“Jesus Ryan!” He hissed. “Warn a guy!” He complained, shifting to brush himself off uncomfortably as his heart rate slowed down.

Ryan just hummed, not bothering to apologize. Both of them knew it’d be a lie, especially when he was smirking in amusement like he was. “I didn’t think you were close enough to Geoff’s to still be able to hear them yelling. You awake at this hour for some other reason then? Gavin maybe?”

Ray seemed to freeze for a split second before switching his shears to his other hand and continuing to pluck away carefully at the bush behind him. “No, not Gavin. He’s probably fucked up right now, but I know he’ll come home eventually.” He brushed him off. “It’s just some bad dreams. Nothing important.”

The ex-King tilted his head thoughtfully at that.

“You don’t seem like the type to have nightmares.”

Ray shot him a sharp look over his shoulder, annoyance clear in his eyes. “And yet you seem like exactly the sort of person to never sleep at all. What’s weird is considering what dreams the mighty Mad King might have when he finally falls asleep.” He said, with a lot more sarcastic venom than he usually did. Whatever dream he’d had, Ryan figured it must’ve been a doozy to put him in a mood like this. First Gavin, now Ray… it was turning out to be in interesting day...

“Nightmares.” He deadpanned boldly. It earned him a startled look.

“Geeze, take a joke.” Ray muttered under his breath quietly enough that it might’ve been debatable on whether Ryan could hear him or not. In any case, he moved forward quickly. “Somehow that’s not entirely surprising. Everyone’s got something I suppose.” He shrugged, obviously trying to play it off.

Badly, in Ryan’s opinion.

“Is… something troubling you?”

“Nothing more than usual.” The younger man responded with a shrug. “We’ve all got troubles we don’t talk about. Even Gavin, considering.”

The old King hummed absently at that, his eyes narrowing. “Surprisingly, Gavin’s one of the easier ones to figure out. You on the other hand… even I don’t know what could possibly be eating you.”

Ray turned and gave him a dry look. “Of course you’ve been analyzing us all.” He huffed, but the words stuck in his brain a little. Ryan was one of the smartest people he’d ever known… and his observations were dead-on. It got him curious. “So… what have you figured out?”

Ryan just smiled knowingly.

“We all lie, you know. Every single one of us lies about why we’re here, with the exception of maybe Jack. I believe he at least believes what he says about being here for Geoff, although the reality may be a little different.” He explained, and Ray felt wariness show on his face. “But just because I have a gift of sniffing out lies, doesn’t mean I actually want to expose them. Lies are helpful. They help the peace.” He said simply.

Ray shook his head. “As if this place is  _peaceful.”_ He chuckled a little dryly, glancing at Geoff’s monolith as if the argument going on inside it was proof enough of his words.

The blonde only blinked once, unaffected. “Compared to the rest of the world, it is.” He said evenly, with a hint of an undercurrent that the rose-lover couldn’t place. Ray turned and brushed his fingers distractedly over the petals of the nearest rose. Of course he knew that well enough—he  _had_  seen what hell looked like after all:  _twice_.

“It was just a joke dude.” He rolled his eyes. Ryan accepted that deflection for what it was in silence for a minute, before nodding thoughtfully.

“You know… I’m starting to think the only place in the world that’s truly peaceful is a Spark Tome.” At the curious look he received at that, he continued, “Just from what Gavin’s told us I mean. It doesn’t seem like there’s a species out there that gets along so perfectly with each other like the Sparks do. It seems wordless… effortless.”

Ray frowned, plucking a petal from its blossom and crushing the silkiness between his fingers until it bled a sweet scent. “And yet he left it for the Human world. Why do you think?”

After a long minute of silence, he looked up to see Ryan staring at the rose bush to his left blankly.

“That’s one of those lies I was talking about.” He said quietly, turning on his heel and walking away, out into the dark forest without another word.

Ray watched him go with an irritated frown. Unhelpful bastard.

000

Gavin curled in on himself a little more, shivering a little against the coolness of the night. It’d start snowing in this area soon, if the seasons kept marching on like they were. He wondered what Humans did for fun in the snow—he’d meant to ask Michael, but it kept slipping his mind in the face of all the other stuff they did in a day. Play games, go hunting for diamonds, chase the rabbits around the swamp, climb trees, build some weird thing for kicks until Geoff yelled at them to take it down, plan to free Edgar, arrange pranks on Jack, pester Ray to get out of his garden and play with them…

 He shivered again.

He was _sure_ Michael had something fun to do when it snowed. Geoff too maybe. Maybe they could _build_ with the snow— but what would they build!?

He closed his eyes and buried his face in his knees, trying to shut out his own thoughts. Why did he keep thinking of them? Why couldn’t he think of something else, _anything else,_ just for a little while…!?

It wasn’t right. Nothing was right.

But… was it wrong?

Could something his heart thought was good be bad? Did it even matter if it was wrong if everyone was happy?

But what if everyone was happy because those who’d be upset were long dead?

Sparks weren’t even supposed to _have_ hearts to feel good, so what authority did his abnormal empathy have? What did the feelings of a monster amongst Humans and an abomination amongst Sparks even matter?

He shivered again.

“There you are.”

Gavin gave a loud shriek of fright as a voice shattered his inner wallowing, going boneless and collapsing to the ground. He whipped his head up to the sky, and saw a familiar figure standing at the top of the crater above him, looking down curiously at the Spark in question, silhouetted by a soft silver moon.

“Ryan!?” Gavin gasped, his heart slamming into his chest painfully. “What are you doing here!?” He squeaked.

“Looking for you.” The ex-King responded as if it was obvious, but a look of confusion quickly taking over. “I thought you were adverse to holes? Why did you go down there?”

Gavin blinked, glancing around him as he slowly sat up again. Why _had_ he crawled down here? What on earth could he have wanted to obtain by sitting in a place at least ten of his fellow kin lit in?

“I…”

… _don’t have an answer._ He thought to himself tiredly.

“I see. So you’re just being masochistic.”

He looked up, confused. “Huh?”

“You’re punishing yourself.” Ryan explained, kneeling down and starting to climb down to the Spark’s level.

“Why would I punish myself?” Gavin frowned warily, watching the Human clamber over the mounds of dirt until he reached the bottom. He dusted his hands off and straightened up, turning to give the Spark a raised eyebrow.

“Well, that’s the question now, isn’t it?” He hummed unhelpfully, finally lowering himself to the ground to sit beside his target and give an almighty sigh, as if this were the most encumbering thing on earth. “You know, Michael is ripping apart the city right now, worried out of his mind. Geoff told him to wait a while before trying to find you. Be prepared though, for when he gets the all clear.”

The Spark turned away, curling in on himself once more. “Geoff didn’t tell _you_ to stay away then?”

Ryan snorted once, pretty ungracefully. “I’m pretty sure he considers me the _last_ person to come looking for you. It probably didn’t cross his mind to tell me not to.”

Gavin couldn’t argue that point, but it only made him more suspicious. “It’s a fair assumption. Why  _are_  you here, anyway?”

“To get an answer.” He said simply. “I don’t think you’re actually upset by this, at least not in the way Geoff thinks you are.”

Now Gavin was _really_ suspicious.

“Why would you think that?”

“Because you watched your entire clan die.”

Gavin’s mind went blank—the sound of explosions and white light in a place that darker than night filled his mind, and he couldn’t breathe.

 _No… don’t think about it,_ he whispered to himself, feeling his limbs tremble a bit as he shook it off quickly.

“You… why—how did you-!?”

“You and Ray have the same look about you.” Ryan said calmly, tilting his head up towards the sky and letting the silver-blue moonlight fall in his blonde hair, turning it grey. His lips curled into a half-smile, that seemed both knowing and a little sad. “The Sparks who blew up here are most likely perfectly fine and continuing to spread horrible rumors about the Hunters amongst the Mob. They’re not dead, and as cruel as it was in hindsight there wasn’t really any harm done besides us being assholes to a bunch of Sparks a couple years ago. You’ve  _seen_  what real harm is, and you’ve felt it. This isn’t even close to it, and I don’t think you’re actually upset about it. I think you’re upset that you’re  _not_  upset.”

It was the cold. That was why he was shivering, it had to be.

“I… I don’t know what you’re… talking about...”

“You’re still conflicted over the fact you’re only half Spark.” The ex-King said, brutally honest and unhurried, like he was simply talking about the weather and completely ignoring the trembling creature beside him. “You feel you belong to both Sparks and Humans, and because you’re not upset about this, it proves you’re taking the Humans’ side. You feel you’re betraying your kin. You’re upset with yourself, not with us.”

Gavin grit his teeth so hard he thought they might break. “I’m upset with  _you_  right now…” He huffed.

“What else is new?”

 _Ryan WHY?!_ He howled silently. Why did he have to bring this up _now!?_ Why was it all so…so…!?

Defeat hit him like a brick wall, and he slumped down, his tension melting away into something hollow and… numb.

Why did it have to be like this?

He gave a deep sigh and closed his eyes against the world, struggling to find the right words.

“Ryan… it’s…it is not in a Spark’s nature to be kind. Or loving. Or friendly even. I can’t hold their nature against them, but I  _like_ that Humans are capable of being close to each other. Humans can be horribly cruel, and so… kind. Sparks can be neither, and I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing.” He worried at his lip, his breath coming a little harsher. “I’m selfish maybe… I’ve been enjoying all the kindness you guys can spare, all the happiness and friendliness that I’ve never really experienced before. I think I just forgot for a little while that Humans come with a lot of good  _and_  a lot of bad.”

His head snapped up when Ryan started chuckling a little. The old King gave him a wry look. “That’s actually rather comforting. Didn’t you used to hate us?”

Gavin gave a soft growl. “Not hate… I don’t think Sparks can hate, and I don’t know if half-Sparks can either. I was definitely afraid of you all though. I…I’m still a little afraid of you, to be honest.” Why had he admitted that? _Why_ had he just said that?!

“Because you don’t know me.” Ryan dismissed him, unconcerned about the admission.

Gavin made a face that went unseen under his hood.  “Does  _anyone_  know you though!?” He snapped right back , cursing himself for just not shutting up already. Still, Ryan didn’t seem to be in an argumentative or destructive mood, he was just being… Ryan.

Blunt, logical, unconcerned Ryan.

He looked _slightly_ concerned now though, as he tilted his head an inch to the left in consideration of that statement.

“…fair point.” He finally agreed, pressing his lips together thoughtfully. Once glance to the Spark beside him, and he seemed to decide something. “I can tell you something about myself though.”

Gavin stared at him.

“Like what?”

“Well…what will make you less afraid of me?” He said it awkwardly, like someone who had no idea how to interact with a child and made up something simple in hopes it was easy enough to understand and yet not too demeaning considering they had no idea how intelligent said child was. For all his knowledge, the ex-Ling seemed uncertain about how to level with what Gavin did and did not know… but at least he was trying.

Now Gavin was certain he’d fallen asleep in this crater and was dreaming. Still… dream or not, he was curious enough to not want to waste this opportunity.

“Something that proves you’re not just a crazy King.” He challenged boldly, half doubtful he even _could._

Ryan seemed to sense this too and smirked dryly. “Interesting, as in a lot of ways I  _am_  just a crazy King. Or ex-King.” He paused, glancing up at the sky once more where the moon was slowly drifting by above them, turning the night’s darkness into a plethora of cobalt blues and silver linings. He sighed, almost as if he were annoyed, but turned back to the Spark with a serene look. “I suppose I could tell you  _why_  I’m not a King anymore.”

That was… interesting.

“Michael seems to think you were chased out. Ray never talks about it.” He informed the Human, his underlying curiosity peeking out from under his blank tone.

“What did Geoff tell you?”

Now that he had to strain his memory for. It’d been nearly five months since that first conversation.

“That… that you just walked away.” He recalled with some effort. It’d been something like that, he thought.

Ryan hummed tunelessly. “In a way, I suppose I did.” He allowed slowly.

 “Well,” He began, frowning a little as he thought about it. “I suppose the best way to explain it is by saying that I had good intentions. I’ve always had nothing but good intentions, but it never seemed to work out like I’d hoped it would. I cared a lot about my kingdom, and honestly I  _still_  care, but the way I went about caring turned out to be a poor tactic. You see… Das Loch has been at war for decades—for mine and my father’s and my grandfather’s entire lifetimes, we’ve always been at war. Our enemy is… pure evil. I thought the only way to fight evil was by fighting fire with fire, and as it turns out, I was wrong. They called me insane, they called me cruel. I thought I could play the bad guy, because at least my people’s enemies would fear me and stay away. I didn’t realize my own people feared me as well until it was too late—they lost their faith in me, and a kingdom with no faith in their King is weak. So I walked away and left it all to someone I thought could handle the task.”

 He summarized it simply, but Gavin still found himself wrapped up in his words. Ryan must’ve mistaken his silence for confusion when he glanced over to see a shadowed hood simply staring at him.

“Do you understand?”

 _Did_ he understand? In a way he did but… he’d never seen war himself. Fighting amongst your own species was a uniquely Human thing to do, especially on such a large scale.

“I… don’t know what war is like. Michael told me what it was, but…”

“I suppose war is a Human concept, right?” Ryan smirked once more.

“Right.” He sighed a little, managing a small, unseen smile at that. Ryan seemed to sense it and leaned back thoughtfully.

“Well, war can be inherently evil. At the same time… you never know what’s important to you until you’re forced to fight for it, putting your life on the line for it. War may be evil, but it’s simple. You fight, you die. If you don’t have a damn good reason to be there, then hopefully you can put your weapon down and walk away.”

Gavin considered that. It _sounded_ simple alright…“Is that what you did?”

A dark smile crossed the ex-King’s face that sent shivers over the Spark’s covered skin. “Let’s just say I had a damn good reason  _not_  to be there. It’s not my fight anymore; I’m not the person who deserves to fight for my people. And they don’t want me to be.”

“So… who did you leave to be King then?” He changed the subject quickly.

“Not the person I’d picked, actually.” Ryan admitted, the shadows in his expression melting away as quickly as they’d come to be replaced with something light, something hopeful almost. “The person I picked was a respectable, knowledgeable knight who I worked with since my father was still King. I thought he’d be perfect—but he evidentially didn’t agree with me. I don’t know how it happened, but next thing I hear, he’s the advisor and right hand man to someone I’ve never heard of before. This new person hadn’t buckled under the pressures of the war though; in fact he seems to be doing quite well, all things considered. Despite the ongoing battles, my people seem to be much happier than they used to be. It probably helps that this new King as an eye for the gold mines Das Loch is rife with—the kingdom is ten times as rich as it ever was when my family ruled it, despite being war torn.”

Gavin smiled for real this time. It was… nice, to hear Ryan talk fondly about anything. He hadn’t been lying apparently: he really did still care about his kingdom, even if he had to walk away from it.

“So who exactly are you fighting against again?”

Just like that the hopeful look in his eyes vanished, and the dark, steely coldness was back with a vengeance. Gavin gulped a little nervously.

 “Pure evil.” He deadpanned. Suddenly sensing the Spark’s uneasiness, he seemed to force his expression to clear and offered a half-hearted smile to reassure him. “Honestly, that’s probably why I unsettle you and everyone else. You can’t fight the darkness without knowing it intimately first. I suppose it changed me in the end.”

Gavin forgot to be uneasy as a wave of confusion crossed his mind.

“The darkness…”

The old King chuckled suddenly, the last remnants of his flash of seriousness slipping away again. “Well, I suppose it isn’t quite so scary to you, whose lived in darkness your whole life. To us Humans, the dark is a scary place.”

The Spark huffed, grinning wide enough for it to be heard in his voice. “Silly Humans.” He chastised playfully, and it got its intended result when Ryan smiled more honestly in reaction.

 After a moment of peace, the ex-King reached into the bag still looped around his shoulders, and pulled out a pale blue potion, offering it to the Spark beside him. “Here, this will warm you. You’re shaking like a leaf from being out here so god damn long.” He put the glass bottle into the startled creature’s hands without waiting for permission, and Gavin just stared at it for a second before deciding that, after this conversation, he could probably trust Ryan not to poison him.

He uncorked it and fiddled with his scarf to take a sip—and instantly felt his muscles relax as heat poured through him. Good god were Humans good at this medicine thing.

“Come on,” Ryan stood, grabbing his arm and pulling him to his feet the second he was finished the potion, taking the glass vial back and placing it carefully back into his organized satchel. “You need to get back to the city and reassure Geoff you’re not leaving him and tell Michael to quit yelling before his lungs give out. You also need to eat something and go to sleep—you’re too skinny, even for a Creeper, and you’ve sat out here for who knows how long in late Autumn like an idiot.” He informed him bluntly, beginning the climb out of the crater with full expectations that Gavin would obey him and follow suit.

He debated putting up a fuss, just to be annoying, but decided against it. Ryan was being awfully nice all of a sudden, and he figured he could be nice too, if just for one night.

Things would return to normal in the morning though, and this… strange friendliness would hopefully stop.

Or, you know… maybe it wouldn’t.

He was nearly at the top and accepting Ryan’s offered hand to pull him out the rest of the way when a thought struck him like a slap to the face.

“Hey… Ryan?” He frowned as he began to follow the Human’s steps back through the dark forest and towards Achievement City. The Hunter hummed in acknowledgement but didn’t turn to face him, and Gavin bit his lip as this new thought nestled more firmly in his suspicions. “Ryan… how did you know about Ray’s village?”

Ryan stopped dead in his tracks.

Gavin nearly collided with him, jumping a little at the abrupt reaction.

Without another word though, Ryan began walking again, not turning around to face or answer the Spark. Still, despite it being so low that Gavin wondered if he was actually supposed to have caught it or not, he heard the Mad King answer.

“It’s just another one of those lies.”


	13. The Queen's Ghosts

“Lindsay!” He burst into the giant oak doors—and promptly froze solid.

“Fucking hell, Miles,” The red headed woman rolled her eyes, dropping the paper she’d been looking over to the table in front of her. The two men across from her examined the newcomer with amused expressions that made him turn beet red.

“Whoops.” He muttered lowly, realizing he’d stepped in it this time.

“What do you want?” One of the men snapped testily.

“No, no, this is way more entertaining than taxes,” The older man closest to him broke out into a mischievous grin.

“King Gus, King Burnie.” Miles nodded to them politely, and then turned to give his own Queen a wide-eyed look.

She rolled her eyes again before turning to her fellow monarchs. “Can we pause until after lunch? I think we might need to discuss whatever news this is anyway.”

“Yes, food,” Burnie instantly abandoned the pile of books in front of him and stood, Gus making a face and standing with him.

“This discussion isn’t over,” He warned the Queen as he passed, but the red-head gave a snarky eye-roll back without missing a beat.

“We can discuss it all you want and I’m not going to change my mind.” She huffed, frowning a little more seriously. “My people are already taxed to hell as it is.”

“That’s not-!”

“Lunch, after lunch,” Burnie interrupted them before they could go at it once more, and pushed his old friend towards the door. Lindsay watched them go with a weary expression, turning back to the pile of books and papers and maps tossed around the large round table in the middle of the great stone hall.

She shouldn’t be so annoyed, it was part of the job, after all. How many years had she spent trying to get into this room to hear the old King and her father talk business? As a child it all seemed so romantic: to sit in the highest tower of the great Citadel and pass down laws to everyone who lived so far below. More romantic though, was to be the loyal knight that stood by her King’s side and fought off every and any threat while her royal sat pretty on their throne, just like her parents had done.

How fucking awesome would that have been?

But no.

Every royal in Rabbia was dead, and somehow she wasn’t a knight, but a Queen. A Queen no one wanted or trusted with four other kingdoms breathing down her neck every minute of the day because technically she had no sovereignty yet.

But her dad had given her a sword for her fifth birthday and made her promise to protect this damn kingdom and she was going to fucking _do that_ even if she had to fend off her enemies from her crown with a spoon. She had friends, sure, but she really didn’t trust anyone else to not fuck her homeland up. The _last_ thing she needed was for Rabbia to turn into someplace like Das Loch, after all.

 She gave a mighty sigh, hunching her shoulders as the sound of the great oak door swinging shut behind her echoed around the empty, stone, cathedral-like library.

The minute they were alone, Miles lurched forward and handed Lindsay a folded scroll. She took it reluctantly with a raised eyebrow as she caught sight of the seal.

“Kerry’s not with you?”

“No, he continued down the Silva boarder to investigate this a little more. He’s waiting for a message for you to venture out into the forests.” The dark haired man—one of her oldest and closest friends turned advisor since this mess had started—looked visibly anxious and it put her on edge.

She frowned suspiciously. “In the forests? Why…” She shook her head, instead of finishing her question she figured she’d find out for herself. She broke the seal on the scroll, unraveling it to scan its contents.

000

“What do you think is going on?” Burnie asked conversationally, settling in his seat in the royal dining hall and looking appreciatively at the meal the kitchen staff had prepared. This was part of the reason he liked traveling to other kingdoms so much: everyone tried to out-do each other, and all the food was always top notch because of it.

“Don’t know. Miles seemed pretty worked up about it though.” Gus said uncaringly, stretching a little. Sitting still in meetings for so long wasn’t easy on the limbs. “Hope it’s not something to do with Das Loch’s war. I’m fucking sick and tired of hearing about that.”

“Hey, just because it doesn’t border your kingdom doesn’t mean you can be a prick about it,” Burnie shot him a reproachful look. “People are still dying and getting hurt.”

“Shut up. It doesn’t border your kingdom either!” He shot back. “And yeah it’s horrible, but how long has this war been going on? Almost a hundred years, right? If it lasts longer than our lifetimes and shows no sign of stopping, I’m allowed to be fed up with it at some point.”

“That’s horrible logic.” Burnie frowned, lifting a sandwich to take a bite. “Although I expect nothing less from you.”

“Oh fuck y-”

“THE HELL!?”

Both Kings froze, Burnie mid-bite and his eyes going wide. Both looked at the giant wooden doors at the end of the hall at the feminine screech that had just pierced straight through several stone walls and a pretty significant corridor.

“Fuck.” Gus blinked.

“Think it’s to do with whatever Miles’ message was?” Burnie wondered gravely as he hastily swallowed his bite.

“Probably.”

They waited a couple seconds, and then heard the sound of iron boots slamming harshly against the stone floor in fast approach.

The doors exploded open, revealing a red-headed Queen in all her furious glory, a scroll in one hand and a slightly terrified Miles hovering cautiously behind her and panting from the run over here and hastily closing the doors so the three monarchs could meet without the quickly gathering stares of others milling around the castle. The Kings exchanged a loaded glance at the foreboding signs.

“Linds…”

“Forget taxes, we’ve got a bigger problem.” She announced clearly, marching forward and slamming the scroll down onto the table between her fellow royals. Burnie jumped a little, lifting his sandwich up just in time less it get crushed.

“We do?” He quirked an eyebrow.

“Yes. Do either of you know what’s going on out in the Silva right now?” She demanded.

“A shit ton of Mob, I assume.” Gus said promptly, and Burnie shrugged along in agreement to that.

She huffed. “Yes, probably, but there’s something a lot more concerning out there too. Apparently people have been fleeing Rabbia and Das Loch and amassing out there in droves.  _Apparently_  they’re calling it Roostiva now, and  _apparently_  it has its own  _King.”_

 The three royals took a moment to sit there in shock and let that sink in.

“How many people are we talking?” Burnie finally let his sandwich rest on his plate, forgotten for the moment.

Lindsay grimaced a little. “More than enough to classify it as a Kingdom. Almost as many as Das Loch has currently after that last battle of theirs.”

The two Kings exchanged loaded looks.

“Shit.” Gus sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Do you know who this new King is?”

“Kerry’s report says some guy named Ramsey, I think.” Lindsay hesitated, watching the two older men freeze and give each other wide-eyed looks of alarm.“What?” She demanded. Realization slowing dawned on her though. “ _Tell me_ you don’t know him…”

Burnie seemed to grimace unpleasantly. “Oh, we know him.”

“That son of a bitch. I bet Jack’s out there too.” Gus cursed, slamming his hands on the table and standing up as well.

“Most likely.” Burnie dropped his head in his hands. “Shit, how did we miss this?”

She knew they didn’t need an answer, but Lindsay felt like giving them one anyway. “Well the Silva borders Das Loch and Rabbia, and with that war of theirs Das Loch has some more important things to worry about. And this kingdom is still a hot mess after the old King’s death so our communication network is still out of whack. People don’t trust like they once did, and villages are keeping to themselves these days, especially those near the borders of Das Loch. News travels slow because of it.” She explained, more to justify why _she_ had missed it more than anything. The last thing she needed was for them to think she’d been slipping in her duties to the information network they’d agreed to help her build.

“Thank god you sent Miles and Kerry out to gather intel then.” Burnie nodded, and she perked up silently at the praise.

“Speaking of thing one and thing two, where is Kerry? It’s not like him to send Miles back alone.” Gus frowned suspiciously.

“Can’t you guess?” She rolled her eyes. “He’s waiting by the Silva tree line for me to message him with the order to go investigate. He’s hoping Mogar will be out there, since it seems to be a kingdom of mostly refugees.”

Gus immediately found the ceiling simply _fascinating_ while Burnie’s normally jovial expression turned to stone in a second.

“Lindsay…”

The Queen grit her teeth, putting a hand up before the senior Monarch could even start.

“I know. You’re thankful he saved your life but he’s still a traitor. I know that and Kerry knows it too—at least I hope I’ve drilled it into his head by now.”

She fucking hated it, but that was the truth of the situation. Had she not been the fucking _queen_ with a responsibility to her people, she’d have loved to pardon that moron but…

“We’re sorry Linds. We know he was your friend too.”

Burnie’s words sounded hollow though, and she clenched her jaw to pointedly ignore the sympathy in his tone. The main reason she couldn’t go out and drag her old knight partner back to her side was _because_ of Burnie’s own decree in his own kingdom. Yes, Michael had killed the old king in order to save Burnie’s (ahem, _Kerry’s)_ life, the fact he was more than willing to kill any king or queen out there meant he was a wanted man through and through. Burnie had been neck-deep in that mess with his own life on the line, and his people had reacted negatively, demanding retribution against Rabbia for even thinking about assassinating their monarch. So, while Burnie had nothing but gratitude towards the traitor knight, he was forced to put a bounty on Michael’s head that would make the gold-loving miners of Das Loch drool—purely as a political statement more than anything, but still. The other kingdoms had been forced to follow suit in denouncing the mighty ‘Mogar’, even she herself needing to comply so as it make it look like she didn’t have anything to do with the “plot” to overthrow any kingdom.

She and Michael had been partners once, after all. When they were just young knights fighting for the thrill of it all.

Mogar kills the old king and she takes the throne? It looked bad, and everyone knew it did, which was why very few even trusted her these days. _But…_ both her parents had been hands of the King, her father a powerful advisor and her mother the captain of the royal guardians who protect the royalty of this tower. Her father had died of an illness shortly before the old king’s death, and her mother had been driven out along with Michael in the chaos of Mogar’s Defection, as they were calling it these days.

Lindsay half believed her mother had left of her own choosing, realizing that if she couldn’t stop one knight from killing her monarch, her honor wouldn’t let her stick around to perform a job she’d already so entirely failed.

But, she brushed all these thoguhts off quickly, already hating this new king for digging up the ghosts of her troubled past so uncaringly.

“He made his choice, and I respect him for it. Still, he’s an asshole for leaving us with this mess of a kingdom to run.” She dismissed bluntly, planting her feet and throwing her shoulders back in defiance. She refused to let these ghosts ruin her level head. “Part of me hopes he’s out in the Silva though, because at least that means he’s found diplomatic immunity from us. I’d have hated to be forced to kill him just because he came back to say hi.”

Gus and Burnie exchanged nearly pleased looks through the tense situation, as if acknowledging her valid point.

 “So… what are you planning to do with this news?” Burnie tilted his head slightly.

Lindsay only paused half a minute to collect her thoughts, before nodding firmly once.

“If the two of you would be willing and we can get in contact with the other two Kings… it might be worth our while to investigate this new, sixth kingdom.”


End file.
